THE  ROBERT  E.  COWAN  COLLECTION 

I'RBSKNTED   TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CHLIFORNIR 

HY 

C,  p.  HUNTINGTON 

JUNE,  1807. 


ficcession  ^oydTc^f)     Class  Nc^^^-V^V 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/coolingglobeormeOOwinsrich 


4 

1 

THE 

<^ 

COOLING      GLOBE; 

* 

1 
! 

THE  MECHANICS  OF 

GEOLOGY. 

1 

BY 

I 

i 

-    1 

C.    F.    WINSLOW, 

1I.D., 

AUTHOR   OF  "COSMOGRAPHY.-"     -'PREPARATION-   OF  THB  EARTH   FOR  THE   IXTELLECTCAL   RACES."                           | 

AXD    OTHER    DISCOURSES. 

1 

1 

••  And  Grod  said.  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gath 
let  the  dry  land  appear;   and  it  was  s< 

■ 

ered  together  unto  one  place,  and 
)."'  —  Gex.  i.  9. 

f                 OFTM     '^         \ 

UNIVERSITY  J 

\ 

BOSTON: 

WALKER,    WISE,    AND 

COMPANY. 

245,  Washisgtox  SxRiirr 

1865. 

1 

i 

THE 


COOLING      GLOBE; 


OR, 


THE  MECHANICS  OF  GEOLOGY. 


BY 


C.   F.   WINSLOW,   M.D., 

AUTHOR   or    "  COSMOORAPHY,"     "'  PRKPARATIOX   OK   THE    EARTH    FOR   THK    INTKU.KCTL'AL   RACES. 
AND     OTHER    DI.SCOURSES. 


And  God  said.  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered  together  unto  one  place,  and 
let  the  dry  land  appear;    and  IT  WAS  SO."'  —  Gkn.  i.  9. 

OPTKK 

UNIVERSITY 

C^LIFORH\L 


BOSTON: 
WALKER,    WISE,    AND    COMPANY, 

245,  Washington  Street. 

1865. 


1 


Ts^^i 

Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 

Walkei!,  Wise,  and  Company. 

In  the  Clerk'.s  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


BOSTON: 

PRESS    OF    .TOHX    WILSOX    AND    SON, 

15.  Watki:  Street. 


TO 


HIS    EXCELLENCY,  JOHN   A.   ANDREW, 

ffirobernor  of  fHassacijusctts, 

WHOSE    ENLIGHTENKD    STATESMANSHIP  —  EVERYWHERE    CONSPICUOUS   IN   THIS   REMARK 
ABLE  ERA  OP  OUR  NATIONAL  HISTORY  —  HAS  BEEN  ESPECIALLY"  DISTINGUISHED 
BY    FORESIGHT    IN    POSTERING    PUBLIC    EDUCATION,    IN    POUNDING    TEM- 
PLES   OP    LEARNING,    AND    IN     ENCOURAGING    THE    PROGRESS    OP 
GENERAL     SCIENCE,  —  THE     ONLY     SOLID     BULWARKS     OP 
AMERICAN    CIVILIZATION   AND    COMMON    LIBERTY, 
THE     VERY      ''  ARK     OF     THE     COVENANT  " 
OP    OUR     REPUBLIC, 

^)^t   Mobmg   ^agcs  mt   rtsptttfuUg   J^cbuakb 

BY      HIS      F  H  I  E  N  D, 


THE    AUTHOR. 


UNIVERSITY 

INTRODUCTION, 


The  two  memoirs  herewith  presented  to  scholars  and 
thinkers,  and  intended  to  be  permanent  contributions  to 
knowledge,  were  read  before  the  Boston  Society  of  Nat- 
ural History:  the  first,  at  the  meeting  of  Oct.  5,  1859  ; 
the  last,  at  the  meeting  of  Jan.  4,  1865. 

The  geological  proposition  which  I  have  attempted  to 
demonstrate  is,  that  the  globe,  when  first  giving  birth 
to  life  and  rudimentary  forms,  was  much  larger  in  all 
its  diameters  than  now. 

When  walking  in  darkness,  we  step  timidly.  When 
the  sun  rises,  we  tread  boldly.  No  doubts  now  remain 
in  my  mind  upon  the  important  subject  involved  in  the 
subsequent  discussions. 

-  When  led  to,  and  while  pursuing,  researches  which 
have  ended  in  these  disquisitions,  the  opinions  of  the 
ancients  were  unknown  to  me.  Geology,  in  its  solid 
conceptions,  however,  is  only  of  recent  birth.  It  be- 
longs to  this  century.  It  is  still  in  infancy ;  and  the 
indefatigable  labor  of  the  largest  intellects  will  be  long 
in  bringing  it  to  maturity.     The  opinions  of  antiquity 


b  INTRODUCTION. 

are  interesting,  only  as  showing  the  sagacity  of  acute 
minds.  They  are  valuable,  because,  although  without 
scientific  foundations  or  forethought  when  recorded, 
they  were  prophetic,  and  exhibit  a  clear  comprehension 
of  geographical  facts,  lost  sight  of,  indeed,  in  this  truly 
scientific  age,  in  the  development  of  geological  and  as- 
tronomical theories. 

Plato  imagined  that  an  immense  space  where  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  is  now  extended,  was  filled  by  land. 

Pliny  transmits  the  traditions  of  many  sudden  sub- 
mergences of  cities,  lands,  and  mountains,  and  of  the 
production  of  bays  and  gulfs,  by  this  cause.  He  says, 
"  The  earth  feeds  upon  itself," —  a  crude  idea,  but  point- 
ing toward  truth. 

Nothing  was  positively  known  by  the  ancients :  and 
nothing  more  was  imagined,  until  the  true  scientific 
period,  ushered  in  by  Copernicus,  began  to  dawn ;  when 
Leibnitz,  the  first  to  perceive  that  our  planet  originated 
in  a  molten  state,  inferred  that,  in  cooling,  it  must  neces- 
sarily shrink.  He  truly  imagined  the  mechanism  by 
which  its  irregularities  of  surface  ha-ve  been  produced ; 
that,  in  shrinking,  immense  caverns  would  be  formed, 
into  which  the  surface  w^ould  sink,  thereby  forming 
oceans,  and  leaving  land  above  water.  This  was  in 
1683.     Nothing  was  thought  of  these  ideas. 

Deluc,  in  1779,  reiterated  the  same  conjectures.  But 
geology,  like  all  science,  needed  facts  for  its  organiza- 
tion into  system  ;  and,  at  that  time,  geology,  as  a  science, 
did  not  exist.     Deluc  and  his  views  were  forgotten. 

Within  the  last  fifty  years,  scientific  inquiry  has  been 
active   and  fruitful.     The  necessity  felt  by  enlightened 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

governments  for  investigating  the  resources  of  their  do- 
mains has  led  to  geological  surveys,  employing  some 
able  observers,  and  ending  in  solid  acquisitions  of  knowl- 
edge. But  from  these  acquisitions  has  sprung  a  science 
vitiated  by  the  opinions  of  modern  European  geologists, 
that  all  visible  lands  have  been  upheaved  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  seas. 

The  object  of  the  following  discourses  is  to  overthrow 
these  opinions,  to  place  Geology  beyond  theory,  and  to 
establish  it,  as  a  science,  on  solid  foundations ;  in  a 
word,  to  Americanize  it. 


tH^ 


^ 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 


READ   BEFORE   THE   BOSTON    SOCIETY    OF    NATURAL    HISTORY, 
Wednesday  Evening,  Oct.  6,  1859. 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 


Perhaps  nothing  has  so  much  retarded  the  solid  prog- 
ress of  geology  as  a  single  aphorism  laid  down  by  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  and  accepted  by  subsequent  astronomers. 
He  concluded,  after  certain  mathematical  computations, 
that  the  unequal  diameters  of  the  earth  at  its  poles  and 
equator  were  the  result  of  centrifugal  force  exerted  at 
the  equator,  in  consequence  of  planetary  rotation. 

What  mathematicians  pronounce  unalterable  law, 
speculative  philosophers  and  the  boldest  thinkers  shrink 
from  questioning. 

For  nearly  two  centuries,  the  present  obliquity  of  the 
earth's  axis  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  has  been  main- 
tained by  astronomers  as  a  stable  fact ;  and  the  physical 
results  of  unceasing  rotation  are  supposed  to  become 
more  pronounced  and  permanent  from  age  to  age. 
Even  within  three  years,  an  eminent  geologist  of  the 
United  States  has  declared  his  conviction,  that  the  North- 
American  continent  is  undergoing  steady  geological  de- 
velopment from  the  embryonic  form  impressed  upon  the 
earth's  crust  as  it  began  to  shrink  by  the  radiation  of 


12  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

its  primal  heat.  More  recently  still,  a  noted  Harvard 
professor  of  mathematics  has  announced  an  opinion, 
based  on  purely  geographical  considerations,  sustaining 
this  view  ;  and  he  expresses  the  conviction,  on  what  he 
considers  indubitable  proof,  that  the  obliquity  of  the 
earth's  axis  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  has  never  under- 
gone the  slightest  change  since  the  dawn  of  creation. 
Indeed,  the  eternal  fixation  of  the  earth's  axis  at  an 
inclination  of  23°  28'  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit  seems 
to  have  become  a  settled  astronomical  idea  ;  and  the 
explanation  of  all  geological  anomalies,  such  as  the  lo- 
cation of  fossil  flora  and  fauna  of  tropical  species  in  the 
temperate  and  frigid  zones,  has  been  bent  to  conform  to 
it.  For  instance,  to  account  for  the  wide  distribution  of 
coal  measures,  it  is  believed  that  there  was  a  carbonif- 
erous age  of  incalculable  duration,  during  which  our 
planet  was  bathed  in  perennial  summer,  from  pole  to 
pole,  notwithstanding  it  then  revolved  upon  its  axis  and 
around  the  sun  in  the  same  manner  as  at  the  present 
time. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  geologists  have,  heretofore, 
been  satisfied  with  these  explanations,  and  have  bowed, 
without  a  question,  to  the  doctrines  of  the  astronomers 
and  mathematicians.  The  views  of  the  former  have 
been  shaped  to  conform  to  the  alleged  discoveries  de- 
duced from  the  demonstrations  of  the  latter.  Although 
naturalists  have  been  constantly  filled  with  wonder  at  the 
discovery  of  fossil  organisms  wholly  out  of  place,  their 
opinions  respecting  the  origin  of  these  things  have  been 
clouded,  and  their  inquiries  circumscribed,  by  the  asser- 
tions of  Newton  and  his  followers.     They  have  paused. 


GEOLOGICAL   REVOLUTIONS.  ^.-«*«-'^  13 


as  if  paralyzed  by  reverence,  at  the  announcements 
of  that  great  philosopher ;  and  reposed,  as  if  the  end  of 
knowledge  had  been  reached.  They  have  interrogated 
nature  for  no  other  explanation  of  these  climatic  anoma- 
lies. Devoid,  in  general,  of  tastes  for  cosmical  research ; 
neglecting  the  study  of  central  forces  ;  and  not  compre- 
hending the  form,  power,  and  play  of  agencies  radiating 
from,  or  shut  up,  and  quietly  or  convulsively  acting 
within,  the  bowels  of  planets,  —  they  have  overlooked 
those  mighty  facts  and  possibilities  which  would  elevate 
physical  geography  and  geology  to  their  legitimate  rank 
among  the  sciences ;  and  which,  indeed,  would  equally 
contribute  to  advance  our  knowledge  of  astronomy. 

Newton's  severe  mathematical  turn  of  mind  seized 
upon  the  smallest  facts,  and  followed  them  to  the  most 
comprehensive  conclusions.  The  falling  of  an  apple  led 
to  his  immortal  discovery  of  gravitation ;  the  twirling  of 
a  mop,  to  the  centrifugal  tendency  of  matter  to  move 
from  the  poles  toward  the  equator  of  rotating  planets. 
Thus  it  will  be  perceived,  that  a  purely  mechanical  idea 
lies  at  the  basis  of  all  computations  and  experiments,  by 
which  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  equatorial 
diameter  of  the  earth  is  twenty-six  miles  greater  than  its 
polar  diameter.  Experiment  and  observation  showed 
a  certain  inequality  ;  numbers  determined  its  quantity. 
The  same  idea  led  to  telescopic  examination  and  micro- 
metric  measurements  of  other  planets,  by  which  it  is 
ascertained  that  all  are  more  or  less  spheroidal ;  yet 
Jupiter's  shape,  although  apparently  agreeing  with 
theory,  is  so  strangely  outlined  as  to  lead  to  the  belief, 
that  there  is  not   that   equable   distribution  of  matter 


14  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

by  centrifugal  motion,  which  should  be  expected  in  a 
plastic  body  subject  to  so  rapid  a  rotation. 

Admitting  the  theoretical  possibilities  of  these  me- 
chanical conditions  in  planetary  masses  (whose  central 
forces,  however,  are  wholly  regulated  by  solar  influ- 
ences, and  not  subject  to  the  accidents  of  centrifugal 
mechanics,  as  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  in  my  memoir 
on  the  "Central  Relations  of  the  Sun  and  the  Earth"), 
does  it  follow,  that  the  present  inclination  of  the  earth's 
axis  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  is  permanent,  and  that 
no  internal  disturbances  can  arise  to  suddenly  and  pro- 
foundly modify  this  inclination  ? 

I  have  for  some  time  ventured  to  entertain  doubts 
upon  these  points ;  and  the  reasons  for  these  doubts,  and 
for  contrary  opinions,  are  derived  from  the  application 
of  the  simplest  physical  laws  to  this  great  geological 
problem. 

An  illustration  will  more  clearly  open  this  subject, 
and  will  more  forcibly  present  the  facts  and  principles 
upon  which  this  inquiry  is  founded. 

Any  homogeneous  and  perfect  sphere  —  a  marble,  for 
instance  —  will  fall  from  a  state  of  rest,  in  a  vacuum, 
without  rotating  or  changing  its  position.  But  change 
the  form  of  that  body  to  a  spheroid,  or  project  moun- 
tains or  sink  depressions  on  various  parts  of  its  surface, 
it  will  change  positions,  partially  rotating,  and  fall,  with 
its  heaviest  hemisphere,  that  is,  with  its  longest  diam- 
eter, or  major  axis,  toward  the  earth.  The  active 
intellect  can  multiply  illustrations  of  this  sort  without 
end ;  and  they  involve  the  simplest  principles  of  physi- 
cal law,  —  principles  which  are  of  universal  application 
to  an  atom  or  a  world. 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUIIONS.  15 

This  planet  (discarding  rotation)  is  only  a  marble  of 
enormous  dimensions  and  heterogeneous  nature,  falling, 
in  a  vacuum,  to  the  sun.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
cause  of  its  primitive  irregularity  of  form,  the  slightest 
preponderance  of  matter  at  one  point  of  its  surface  or 
another  will  necessarily  alter  the  relations  of  its  poles 
to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic.  The  diameter  of  the  globe 
at  the  equator  is  twenty-six  miles  greater  than  at  the 
poles;  and  the  inclination  of  its  axis  to  the  plane  of 
the  ecliptic  is  adjusted  by  laws  of  gravitation  so  fixed, 
that  it  can  never  alter,  unless  the  relative  amount  of 
matter  in  the  hemispheres  be  disturbed.  Should  this 
disturbance  ever  occur  from  any  cause  whatever,  or  in 
any  manner,  the  degree  of  axial  inclination  must  shift, 
either  suddenly  or  slowly,  according  to  the  agency 
operating  to  produce  disturbance  of  equilibrium.  For 
instance,  suddenly  transplant  Greenland  from  its  present 
connection  with  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  south 
of  Australia,  what  would  be  the  geological  and  the  geo- 
graphical changes  upon  the  surface  of  the  whole  globe  ? 
As  small  as  Greenland  is  in  superficial  extent,  the  earth 
would  instantly  feel  the  disturbance  of  its  equilibrium, 
and  the  inclination  of  its  axis  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit 
would  become  sensibly  aff'ected.  The  physical  results, 
and  changes  in  distribution  of  organic  life,  that  would 
necessarily  follow,  would  be  universal  in  character  and 
extent.  Similar  consequences  would  naturally  follow 
the  slow  elevation  or  submergence  of  continents.  This 
conclusion  is  unavoidable.  But  the  present  state  of  the 
earth's  surface,  the  vast  inequalities  of  its  crust,  em- 
bracing its  varied  and  entire  stratilogical  phenomena, 


16  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

clearly  suggest  that  all  its  aspects  are  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  the  mechanical  results  of  centrifugal  motion, 
—  an  idea  to  which  geology,  with  all  its  magnificent 
contemplations,  and  the  great  truths  to  flow  from 
its  boimdless  developments,  has  been  enchained,  since 
the  rocks  first  claimed  the  attention  of  observers  and 
thinkers. 

Having  discarded  this  astronomical  impediment  to 
geognostic  progress,  and  laid  down  a  principle  on 
which  paleontologists  can  hereafter  proceed  with  firm- 
ness and  solid  success,  I  will  note  a  few  facts,  and 
deduce  from  them  the  mechanism  by  which  geological 
revolutions  have  been  produced,  and  through  which 
have  resulted  the  present  shape  of  our  planet,  and  its 
polar  relations  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic. 

The  fixst  series  of  facts  to  which  I  would  ask  atten- 
tion is  that  where  it  is  indisputable  that  the  earth's 
crust,  in  small  areas,  has  suddenly  sunk  below  sur- 
rounding levels.  Such  a  spot  is  Kilauea,  embracing  a 
circumference  of  nine  miles,  on  the  slope  of  Mauna 
Loa,  in  Hawaii,  where  the  walls  of  the  pit  are  six 
or  eight  hundred  feet  in  perpendicular  depth.  This 
area  was  ingulfed  at  some  remote  period,  into  the 
Plutonic  caverns  of  Hawaii ;  and  around  the  ridges  of 
its  debris,  still  projecting  from  the  floor  of  the  pit,  the 
lava  rises  and  breaks  away  and  falls,  at  long  intervals, 
like  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  which  rise  and  freeze  around 
the  coast  of  other  half- sunken  islands. 

A  similar  spot  is  Thingvalla,  the  seat  of  the  ancient 
Althing,  in  Iceland,  well  described  of  late  by  young 
Lord   Dufi'erin.      This,  however,  is   greater  in  extent 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS.  17 

than  that  of  Kilauea ;  and,  happening  to  be  nearer  the 
coast,  it  became  partly  overwhelmed  by  the  sea. 

A  portion  of  the  site  of  old  Callao  is  said  to  have  sunk 
in  an  instant,  on  the  28th  of  October,  1746.  Ships 
now  anchor  above  its  dwellings,  and  mephitic  gas  is  fre- 
quently ejected  from  the  bottom  of  the  bay. 

The  quay  of  Lisbon  was  ingulfed,  with  equal  sudden- 
ness, on  the  1st  of  November,  1755  ;  and  a  large  area 
near  New  Madrid,  in  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
vanished,  in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  earthquake,  on  the 
16th  of  December,  1811,  and  was  overwhelmed  by  the 
floods  of  the  river. 

These  submergences,  preceded  by  terrific  subterra- 
nean thunders  and  convulsions,  disclose  the  remarkable 
geological  fact  of  cavities  beneath,  of  great  depth,  whose 
dimensions  must  be  greater  than  the  superincumbent 
masses  received  into  them.  These  statements  conclu- 
sively settle  the  question  of  subterranean  cavities  on  a 
small  scale  ;  that  is,  from  two  to  twenty  and  thirty  miles 
in  extent,  into  which  the  superincumbent  crust  may 
plunge,  and  be  overwhelmed  with  water,  or  with  the 
plastic  matter  of  the  nucleus.  Records  of  phenomena 
of  this  kind  are  very  numerous. 

From  these  minor  facts,  it  is  easy  to  ascend  to  greater, 
and  show  the  same  relation  of  superficies  to  internal 
cavities  and  canals,  by  the  evidence  of  strata  of  identical 
character,  exposed  on  opposite  coasts,  headlands,  and 
many  river  channels,  in  consequence  of  the  submer- 
gence of  intervening  areas  of  the  crust.  The  great 
lakes  of  North  America,  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  the 
German    Ocean,    and    the    English    Channel,    are    but 

3 


18  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

larger  expressions  of  the  same  geological  events.  The 
limestones  of  Cuba  and  Yucatan  are  but  continua- 
tions of  the  former  sea-bottoms  of  North  America ;  the 
sudden  collapsing  of  which  upon  the  condensing  nu- 
cleus of  the  planet  gave  origin  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  Caribbean  Sea,  with  its  linear  groups  of  isolated 
fragments,  and  to  the  southerly  dip  of  this  northern 
continent,  —  in  the  midst  of  which  catastrophe,  as  the 
globe  swayed  from  its  former  equipoise,  the  oceans 
swept  to  the  new  equator,  and  perhaps  effected  that 
remarkable  drift  action  so  conspicuous  in  our  hem- 
isphere. 

From  these  illustrations,  we  may  ascend  to  still  more 
grand  displays  of  similar  submergences,  where  the  evi- 
dence is  clear  and  positive,  although  different  from  that 
heretofore  presented.  I  will  first  allude  to  the  ingulf- 
ment  of  a  continent  that  once  occupied  the  present 
area  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  scanty  vestiges  of  which 
manifestly  disclose  its  former  existence.  Among  these 
vestiges  is  the  remarkable  island  of  St.  Paul's,  which  I 
have  personally  explored.  It  is  the  top  of  some  vast 
volcanic  mountain,  like  Cotopaxi,  or  Popocatapetl, 
which  lingers  above  the  waves  as  did  the  chimneys 
of  some  of  the  houses  of  old  Callao,  for  a  while  after 
its  submergence.  One  side  of  the  crater  was  split  off 
in  the  catastrophe,  and  sank  many  hundred  feet  deeper 
than  the  existing  island,  admitting  the  sea  more  than  a 
hundred  feet  deep  within  its  basin ;  while  a  needle  of 
immense  dimensions  stands  out  from  the  main  land, 
an  unmistakable  sign  of  the  nature  of  the  accident,  and 
contradicting  all  possibility  of  upheaving  action. 


GEOLOGICAL    REVOLUTIONS.  19 

So,  in  the  broad  Pacific,  the  long  chains  of  atolls,  as 
ingeniously  divined  by  Darwin,  plainly  betoken  the  ex- 
istence of  submerged  mountain-ridges,  and  of  craters, 
which,  in  former  ages,  played  an  important  part  in 
throwing  off  the  heat  of  the  shrinking  nucleus,  and  pre- 
paring the  globe  for  the  destructive  cataclysms  which 
have  divided  the  geological  ages.  The  evidence  of 
sunken  craters,  derived  from  lagoon  formations,  is 
strengthened  by  the  half-sunken  crater  of  St.  Paul's, 
in  the  Indian  Ocean,  just  described  ;  while,  the  coral 
chains  of  the  Laccadives  and  Maldives,  further  north, 
are  only  a  repetition  of  the  same  phenomena,  much 
more  largely  distributed,  in  the  tropical  latitudes  of  the 
Pacific. 

Partial  subsidences  of  great  areas  are  as  palpable 
as  total  submergences.  The  general  dip  southward  of 
North  America  is  a  remarkable  example  of  this  ;  and 
minor  ones  are  as  numerous  as  the  water-sheds  and  syn- 
clinal valleys  throughout  the  planet. 

But  the  question  will  naturally  be  asked  in  this  stage 
of  our  inquiry.  What  substantial  evidence  now  exists  of 
empty  spaces  beneath  the  crust  ?  —  what  more  than  the 
mere  presumption  of  their  former  existence  derived 
from  appearances  of  Kilauea,  the  great  lakes,  British 
Channel,  and  other  illustrations  1 

The  reply  to  this  question  immediately  brings  into  sys- 
tematic requisition  an  important  series  of  facts  heretofore 
neglected  by  physicists  ;  those  remarkable  subterranean 
thunders  long  observed,  many  of  which  are  noted  in  Hum- 
boldt's writings,  and  have  been  heard  by  my  informants 
in  the  mountains  of  California,  and  by  myself  in  the 


20  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

western  part  of  Mexico,  unaccompanied  with  the  slight- 
est perceptible  motion  of  the  ground.*  I  need  hardly 
refer  to  the  records  of  science  to  recall  the  terrible 
thunderings,  which,  on  the  12th  of  April,  1812,  sud- 
denly startled  the  inhabitants  of  Venezuela,  and  were 
heard  over  an  area  of  ninety-two  hundred  square  miles ; 
while  over  six  hundred  miles  distant,  in  the  north- 
east, the  volcano  of  St.  Vincent  poured  forth  a  copious 
stream  of  lava.  By  this  phenomenon,  we  may  safely 
declare,  in,  view  of  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
that  the  eruption  of  molten  rock  into  a  vast  cavern,  or 
chain  of  caverns,  deep  down  below  the  bed  of  the  Car- 
ibbean Sea,  found  its  way  to  the  surface,  among  the 
West-India  Islands,  decomposing  water  or  atmospheric 
air,  and  igniting  explosive  gases  in  its  passage ;  which 
reverberated  through,  and  plainly  disclosed,  the  exist- 
ence of  enormous  voids  underlying  the  northern  and 
eastern  portions  of  South  America. 

A  similar  phenomenon  occurred,  in  1744,  in  New 
Grenada,  where  subterranean  sounds  resembling  the 
discharge   of  cannon    w^ere   heard   over  a  large   area  ; 

*  Since  the  composition  of  this  discourse,  the  author  has  extensively  travelled  in 
the  Andes  and  the  coast-regions  of  South  America,  where  he  has  observed  these  phe- 
nomena repeatedly.  In  the  Andes,  at  Riobamba,  the  terrific  subterranean  thunder- 
ings were  very  frequent,  and  seemed  to  proceed  from  the  direction  of  the  violently 
active  volcano  of  Sangai,  over  thirty  miles  distant.  These  profound  bellowings,  rolling 
along  for  indefinable  distances,  and  reverberating  with  continuous  rumblings,  were 
generally  unaccompanied  with  the  slightest  motion.  Sometimes,  however,  there  was 
sensible  quivering  of  the  ground,  which  I  have  felt  in  the  stillness  of  night,  while  lying 
in  my  bed  in  Riobamba,  and  when  I  have  been  travelling  during  the  da}'.  I  have 
observed  the  same  phenomena,  also,  both  west  and  north  of  Cotapaxi,  when  I  sup- 
posed they  proceeded  from  the  subterranean  caverns  extending  beyond  the  flanks  of 
this  active  volcano. 

Similar  phenomena  I  have  observed  often  at  Guayaquil,  where  the  sounds  and 
motions  appeared  to  come  from  the  direction  of  the  Pacific,  following  up  the  Gulf,  and 
proceeding  eastward  towards  the  Andes.  I  have  felt  the  jars  of  these  subterranean 
detonations,  while  on  board  a  steamer  lying  in  the  river. 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS.  21 

while  Cotopaxi,  eighteen  thousand  feet  higher,  and 
four  hundred  and  thirty-six  miles  distant,  sent  forth 
a  violent  eruption.  Here  is  another  suggestive  fact, 
like  the  preceding  one,  where  molten  floods,  moved  by 
repulsive  forces,  were  elevated  nineteen  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  perhaps  three  hundred 
thousand  feet  from  their  source ;  and,  in  their  passage 
from  the  central  fires,  opened  communication  with  im- 
mense subterranean  cavities,  exploding  gases  which 
resounded  several  hundred  miles,  beneath  the  northern 
and  western  part  of  South  America. 

During  the  violent  earthquake  of  New  Grenada,  in 
February,  1835,  subterranean  thunders  were  heard 
simultaneously  at  Popayan,  Bogota,  Santa  Martha, 
Hayti,  Jamaica,  and  on  Lake  Nicaragua.  At  Carac- 
cas,  they  continued  seven  hours,  without  any  movement 
of  the  ground.  These  facts,  with  various  others,  have 
been  collated  by  Humboldt ;  and  in  the  last,  as  in  the 
other  two,  the  same  phenomenon  is  exhibited,  indicating 
an  area  of  14°  of  latitude  by  25°  of  longitude,  em- 
bracing a  large  portion  of  Central  America,  the  West- 
India  Islands,  and  the  whole  northern  part  of  South 
America,  —  an  area  of  one  million  and  fifty  thousand 
square  miles,  to  be  more  or  less  undermined,  and  liable 
to  sudden  submergence. 

All  these  facts  —  to  say  nothing  of  others  similar  or 
varied  in  their  expression,  and  indicating  even  broader 
continental  ranges  exposed  to  future  subsidence  —  are 
solid  evidences,  so  far  as  they  can  be  traced,  and  applied 
in  all  their  bearings,  to  substantiate  the  geological  posi- 
tion laid  down,  and  the  conclusions  maintained  in  this 


22  GEOLOGICAL    REVOLUTIONS. 

discourse.  While  they  lay  foundations  for  the  broadest 
discussions,  they  elevate  geology  into  its  true  position 
among  the  sciences,  by  opening  a  new  field  to  the 
philosopher,  stored  with  the  boundless  wealth  of  past 
time.  The  modus  agendi  of  subsidences  has  been 
heretofore  only  matter  of  conjecture,  and  an  unsolved 
problem  in  the  physics  of  the  globe.  Leibnitz  —  that 
greater  than  Newton,  in  the  general  amplitude  of  his 
understanding  and  acquirements  —  was  the  first  to  sug- 
gest the  original  igneous  condition  of  the  planet,  and 
its  gradual  shrinkage  from  the  persistent  radiation  of  its 
heat.  Cordier,  more  recently,  has  reiterated  this  opin- 
ion, and  fancied  that  it  must,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
become  wrinkled,  like  a  drying  aipple,  in  undergoing 
this  process ;  and  that  thus  the  strata  have  been  slowly 
folded,  the  continents  and  mountains  uplifted,  and 
oceans  formed.  Geologists  generally  have  settled  down 
upon  this  theory  of  upheavals ;  and  James  D.  Dana,  the 
most  accomplished  scientist  in  this  country,  has  endeav- 
ored to  systematize  the  idea,  by  an  ingenious  disquisition 
on  "  Geological  Development,"  which  is  radically  de- 
fective by  reason  of  its  inapplicability  to  universal 
conditions.  But  the  illustrations  which  I  have  pre- 
sented, and  the  facts  upon  which  I  demonstrate  the 
modus  agendi  of  sudden  ingulf  men  ts  of  vast  areas, 
while  they  exhibit  the  penetrating  sagacity  of  Leibnitz 
respecting  the  effects  of  radiation  of  heat,  disprove  the 
theory  of  Cordier,  and  the  speculative  developments 
of  Dana ;  and  present  geology  to  scholars  in  such  as- 
pects, and  based  on  such  principles,  that  there  is  no 
problem,  however  obscure  heretofore,  that  does  not  re- 
ceive a  ready  solution  among  its  deductions. 


GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS.  23 

By  these  sudden  ingulfments  of  great  areas,  the  equi- 
poise of  the  world  would  be  disturbed,  the  inclination 
of  its  axis  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit  would  be  modified  ; 
the  oceans  would  instantly  change  their  beds,  leaving 
myriads  of  aquatic  animals  on  dry  land,  or  embedded 
in  drifting  sediments,  and  exposing  water-lines  on  the 
margins  of  rivers,  lakes,  hills,  and  islands.  Terrestrial 
animals  would  be  suddenly  transferred,  perhaps  swept 
by  floods  from  temperate  to  frigid  regions.  New  expo- 
sures to  the  solar  rays  would  supervene,  profoundly 
affecting  the  isothermals,  so  that  the  glaciers  of  the 
poles  would  be  dislodged,  and  set  in  motion  over  broad 
regions ;  and  the  theory  of  moving  ice,  suggested  by  a 
gifted  naturalist,  which  heretofore  has  been  so  embar- 
rassing to  geologists,  w^ould  be  transformed  into  a  living 
and  immortal  truth. 

From  this  point  of  view,  also,  the  more  profound 
secrets  of  the  globe  will  become  better  understood ; 
such  as  the  penetration  of  the  ocean  into  seething  cav- 
erns, which,  becoming  vast  reservoirs,  and  retorts  for 
the  solution  of  silex  and  metals,  collapse  again  in  the 
process  of  time,  and  press  up  their  contents  through 
fissures,  in  the  shape  of  metalliferous-quartz  veins  ;  such 
also  as  the  origin  and  phenomena  of  certain  earth- 
quakes, and  of  subterranean  thunders,  of  salt  mines, 
of  immense  petroleum  deposits,  and,  among  other 
things,  the  unnatural  warmth  of  the  gulf- stream,  by 
the  return  of  heated  waters  from  sub-oceanic  fissures 
in  the  Bay  of  Mexico. 

It  does  not  absolutely  follow,  because  planets  are 
spheroidal,  that  thek  oblateness  springs  from  the  cen- 


24  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

trifugal  effects  of  rotation.  It  is  an  established  law, 
that  all  bodies  fall  with  their  major  axes,  or  heaviest 
diameters,  toward  their  centre  of  gravity ;  and  since  it 
is  now  unquestionably  ascertained  that  causes  lying 
within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  wholly  indepen- 
dent of  the  action  of  centrifugal  force,  are  periodically 
operative  to  change  its  shape,  and  modify  the  inclination 
of  its  axis  to  the  plane  of  its  orbit,  it  becomes  an  object 
of  interest  to  geologists  to  inquire  if  the  earth's  diam- 
eter at  the  poles  was  not  even  greater  when  organic  life 
was  first  created  than  its  present  equatorial  measure- 
ment. It  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  it  must  have 
been  so ;  for,  when  all  the  greater  and  minor  changes 
which  can  be  readily  traced  are  contemplated  in  the  ag- 
gregate, I  must  confess  my  conviction,  that  the  planet  has 
diminished  many  miles,  in  all  its  diameters,  since  or- 
ganic forms  were  first  introduced  into  its  seas  ;  and,  if 
so,  it  becomes  self-evident,  that  those  seas,  from  being 
very  shallow,  and  of  universal  distribution  in  the  primal 
ages,  have  become  deeper,  and  divided  by  ever- changing 
coasts,  sweeping,  with  every  modification  of  the  earth's 
equipoise,  over  old  lands,  and  collecting  into  new  basins, 
until  their  present  geographical  limits  were  defined  by 
the  last  great  catastrophe,  which,  judging  from  recent 
discoveries,  must  have  occurred  since  the  creation  of  the 
human  race.  These  events  must  be  necessary  conse- 
quences of  the  physical  constitution  of  our  planet,  and 
of  the  action  of  its  central  forces ;  and  I  have  little 
doubt  that  the  further  pursuit  of  this  inquiry  will  lead 
to  a  certain  sort  of  chronological  accuracy  respecting 
those    grand    dynastic    revolutions,   which,   in    the   his- 


GEOLOGICAL    REVOLUTIONS.  25 

tory  of  the  globe,  have  divided  its  geological  epochs, 
when  new  conditions  of  climate,  surface,  of  magnetic 
and  organic  forces,  springing  from  its  successively 
new  and  nearer  relations  to  the  sun,  combined  for  the 
production  of  new  and  more  elaborate  forms  of  vegeta- 
ble and  animal  life.  So  numerous  are  the  evidences  of 
vast  continental  revolutions  that  it  is  physically  impos- 
sible that  the  equipoise  of  the  planet  should  not  have 
been  many  times  profoundly  disturbed  ;  and,  if  so,  the 
present  inclination  of  its  axis  to  the  plane  of  the  eclip- 
tic must  be  an  event  of  comparatively  recent  occurrence. 
The  evidences  derived  from  earlier  geological  conditions 
leave  no  doubt  of  the  earth's  former  polar,  or  almost 
polar,  relations  to  the  sun's  vertical  beams. 

The  various  inclinations  of  the  axes  of  the  other 
planets  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  strongly  substan- 
tiate these  deductions.  The  extreme  difference  of 
inclination  in  that  of  Jupiter,  and  in  that  of  Uranus, 
—  the  first,  perpendicular ;  the  last,  almost  transverse,  — 
demonstrates  causes  at  work,  which,  inferring  from  what 
we  know  of  the  constitution,  forces,  and  revolutions  of 
our  own  globe,  must  proceed  from  the  centre  of  their 
respective  spheres.  We  find,  indeed,  the  moons  of 
Uranus  pursuing  retrograde  paths  ;  thus  pointing  us  to 
the  wondrous  fact,  that  his  revolutions  of  surface  have 
been  so  vast  or  numerous,  as  to  completely  reverse  the 
ordinary  and  original  direction  of  the  poles ;  so  much 
so,  indeed,  as  to  produce  a  retrograde  rotation,  which 
his  satellites,  by  well-known  cosmical  laws,  must  neces- 
sarily follow.  The  retrograde  motions  of  the  satellites 
show  a  remarkable  local  peculiarity :  but,  by  geological 


26  GEOLOGICAL  REVOLUTIONS. 

deductions,  this  anomaly  is  satisfactorily  explained,  and 
a  uniformity  of  design,  origin,  and  construction  through- 
out the  system,  is  established. 

The  pursuit  of  this  wide  geological  inquiry  opens 
into  the  realms  of  astronomy ;  and  we  behold  the  sub- 
limest  of  sciences  becoming  tributary  to  the  rocks  for 
the  explanation  of  its  most  difficult  problems. 

The  inequalities  of  surface  in  the  heavenly  bodies 
nearest  the  earth  show  the  same  causes  at  work  within 
their  bowels,  which,  acting  within  this  globe,  have  pro- 
duced the  countless  disturbances  of  its  rocks  and  oceans. 
Change  the  relative  bulk  of  matter  in  either  hemisphere, 
and  the  planet  would  sway  in  space,  and  turn  its  longest 
diameter  to  the  sun.  New  poles  and  a  new  equator 
would  be  established.  The  degree  of  axial  inclination 
to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic  would  become  greater  or 
less ;  and  according  to  the  extent  and  suddenness  of  these 
changes  of  equipoise  would  be  the  movements  of  the 
seas,  the  exposure  of  reefs  and  shallows,  and  the  over- 
whelming of  old  coasts.  The  climate  everywhere  would 
be  changed,  and  the  destruction  of  entire  genera  of  plants 
and  animals  would  ensue ;  or,  such  profound  alteration 
of  terrestrial  forces  be  effected,  that  former  ranges  of 
distribution  would  be  annihilated,  and  old  forms  would 
take  on  new  expressions  of  development,  until,  at  last, 
as  in  the  present  epoch,  the  subtlest  principles  of  na- 
ture would  become  elaborated  into  a  frame-work  of 
atoms,  —  a  compound  of  all  the  past  in  plan,  substance, 
form,  force,  and  instinct,  —  with  an  internal  fitness  added 
for  companionship  with  the  great  creative  Thought. 


RADIATION  AND  GRAVITATION 


APPLIKD    TO 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL     GEOGRAPHY. 


READ   BEFORE   THE    BOSTON    SOCIETY   OF    NATURAL    HISTORY, 
Wedn£si>at  Evknino,  Jan.  4,  1865. 


29 


PREFACE 


Radiation,  as  a  cosmical  fact  of  immense  and  univer- 
sal significancy,  was  justly  the  discovery  of  Leibnitz. 
Gravitation  v^as  equally  the  discovery  of  both  Newton 
and  Leibnitz.  While  the  latter  agent  has  been  allowed 
its  real  value,  as  a  force  of  universal  and  creative  activ- 
ity, and  has  elevated  astronomy  to  the  loftiest  ranges  of 
exact  study ;  the  former  has  been  employed  only  in  a 
speculative  sense ;  and,  so  far,  has  led  theorists  to  no 
knowledge  of  its  truly  practical  and  effective  agency,  as 
a  co-worker  with  gravitation,  in  the  present  economy 
of  the  physical  universe.  The  nebular  theory  in  as- 
tronomy, and  the  upheaval  theories  in  geology,  have 
exhausted  the  wits  of  their  advocates  ;  although  physi- 
cal facts  are  known,  which,  if  candidly  weighed,  would 
reduce  all  these  speculations  to  absurdity. 

The  time  has  arrived  for  ingenious  theories,  however 
renowned  their  authorship,  to  yield  to  the  commanding 
voice  of  inexorable  nature. 

The  effects  produced  upon  our  planet  by  the  radia- 
tion of  its  heat  are  only  counterparts  of  circumstances 
transpiring  in  all  planets,  and  in  all  cosmical  masses, 

^  OP  THK  > 

<^^IVERSITY 


30  PREFACE. 

however  vast  their  dimensions,  or  however  remotely 
separated  from  each  other.  While  gravitation  pervades 
all  nature,  and,  however  atomic  in  its  accommodations, 
is,  nevertheless,  a  strictly  astronomical  and  world-sustain- 
ing agent ;  radiation,  more  local,  assumes  cosmological 
functions,  and  becomes  the  world-maker  and  world-per- 
fecter.  As  will  be  seen  in  the  following  discourse,  it 
prepares  the  globe  for  those  sudden  and  terrific  revolu- 
tions which  end  in  preparing  its  surface  for  new  forms 
and  races  of  plants  and  animals.  Studied  from  this 
point  of  view,  it  becomes  magnified  into  a  great  visible 
and  practical  fact,  no  longer  to  be  overlooked  by  geolo- 
gists. It  is  the  veritable  fulcrum  of  their  science  ;  and 
is  as  important  to  the  progress  of  their  department  of 
knowledge  as  gravitation  has  been  to  the  developments 
of  astronomy.  Both  are  equally  efibctive  forces  in  the 
hand  of  God.  Both  were  the  handmaidens  of  his 
power,  when  Chaos  sprang  to  light  and  life.  Both 
are  the  angels  of  his  love  and  wrath.  Both  silently 
obey  his  mandates  in  the  evolution  of  progressive  good. 


31 


RADIATION  AND  GRAVITATION 


APPLISD    TO 


GEOLOGY  AND  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY. 


I  HAD  the  honor,  on  the  5th  October,  1859,  to  read  a 
memoir  before  this  Society,  advocating  a  system  of  ter- 
restrial changes  different  from  the  current  theories  of 
geology.  It  attracted  no  attention,  received  no  notice, 
and  excited  no  discussion.  The  views  then  advanced 
were  the  result  of  much  reflection  upon  the  struc- 
ture'of  the  earth,  after  extensive  travel,  and  vigilant 
observation  of  its  surface.  Larger  opportunities  for 
investigation  have  only  confirmed  the  general  views 
at  that  time  initiated  ;  and  I  now,  respectfully  and 
earnestly,  invite  the  attention  of  geologists  and  physi- 
cists to  that  subject,  as  I  shall  herein  present  it,  and 
solicit  them  to  examine  it  in  all  its  aspects  and  devel- 
opments. 

Paul  was  brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  and 
believed  in  the  straitest  doctrines  of  the  Jews.  But 
questionings  at  last  fell  upon  him  as  he  journeyed ;  and, 
after  groping  awhile  in  darkness,  his  eyes  suddenly 
opened  to  marvellous  light  and  truth.  Geology  has 
its   Qamaliels ;   and  we  have  all   been   brought  up   at 


32  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED   TO 

their  feet.  The  doctrine  of  upheavals  by  slow  or  ac- 
tive igneous  processes  is  an  established  idea  among  all 
scholars  and  theorists  ;  and  it  is  as  firmly  fixed  in  the 
minds  of  geologists  as  were  the  law  and  prophets  in 
the  minds  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  general  irregularities  of  the  earth's  surface ;  the 
broken  and  dislocated  conditions  of  rocks  everywhere, 
from  the  highest  mountain  summit  to  the  lowest  fossilif- 
erous  strata  and  the  bottom  of  the  deepest  mines ;  the 
presence  of  marine  forms,  high  above,  and  far  removed 
from,  their  ocean  homes,  and  of  coal-fields  full  of 
tropical  plants,  under  the  earth  and  sea,  and  in  arctic 
regions,  —  have,  from  the  days  of  earliest  knowledge, 
excited  speculative  curiosity,  and,  beginning  with  Leib- 
nitz, have  stimulated  thinkers  to  attempt  solutions  of 
these  wonderful  problems. 

The  declarations  and  authority  of  two  notable  men, 
more  than  the  statements  of  all  others,  have  retarded 
the  advancement  of  general  knowledge.  The  person- 
ages to  whom  I  allude  are  Moses  and  Newton.  The 
authority  of  the  former  weighs,  even  now,  too  much 
with  observers  and  natural  philosophers  ;  and  I  am  free 
to  say,  that  the  severest  truth,  as  it  lies  in  nature,  cannot 
be  faithfully  sought  nor  found,  until  we  rise  above  all 
the  sacred  traditions  of  the  ancients.  Indeed,  it  is  only 
after  throwing  off  all  shackles  of  church  and  school, 
and  striking  the  rock  with  our  own  inspired  rod,  that 
we  can  obtain  that  living  truth  which  shall  water  the 
earth  with  its  unfailing  fountains. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  retarding  influence 
of  the  Jewish  legends  upon  the  free  expansion  of  the 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  33 

human  intellect,  nothing  has  more  hindered  the  devel- 
opment of  cosmographical  truth  than  the  mathematical 
authority  of  Isaac  Newton.  The  discoveries  of  Coper- 
nicus (born  1473),  Tycho  Brahe  (1546),  Galileo  (1564), 
and  Kepler  (1571),  opened  modern  science  for  the 
application  of  the  mathematics.  A  century  later  arose 
Newton  and  Leibnitz,  born  about  the  same  time,  the 
first  in  1642,  the  last  in  1646,  whose  studies  embraced 
all  the  departments  of  physical  nature.  Peers  in  all 
the  elements  of  intellectual  greatness,  endowed  with 
similar  gifts,  equally  discoverers  of  gravitation  and  of 
fluxions  independently  of  each  other,  they  appear  to 
have  been  sent  by  Providence  for  the  highest  special 
purposes  ;  and  their  names  must  forever  remain  the 
proudest  in  the  history  of  the  exact  sciences.  The  re- 
searches of  Leibnitz  convinced  him  that  the  earth,  at 
some  former  period,  had  been  in  a  state  of  igneous 
fusion.  Its  oblateness  having  been  ascertained,  New- 
ton made  computations  by  his  new  methods  of  notation, 
and  announced  that  the  centrifugal  force  incident  to  the 
rotation  of  the  planet  was  just  sufficient  to  produce 
the  diff'erence  between  its  diameters  at  the  poles  and 
equator.  This  difference  is  now  known  to  be  not  far 
from  twenty-six  miles.  All  experiments  and  observa- 
tions demonstrate  a  certain  inequality ;  but  it  is  now 
known,  that  the  oblateness  of  the  opposite  hemispheres 
is  dissimilar. 

The  mathematical  deduction  of  Newton  has  so  influ- 
enced the  opinion  of  physicists,  and  the  developments 
of  geology,  that  while  all  appearances  of  the  earth's 

crust  indicate  numerous,  successive,  universal,  and  sud- 

6 


34  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED   TO 

den  changes  of  climate,  and  of  the  aqueous  and  solid 
materials  which  compose  and  envelop  it,  no  man  has 
ventured  to  question,  or  attempted  to  disprove,  the  ac- 
curacy of  his  demonstrations  and  conclusions.  They 
remain  settled  doctrines  in  the  physics  of  the  globe  to 
this  hour.  Geological  theories  have  been  narrowed  and 
moulded  by  them  ;  and  the  alleged  experimentum  crucis 
announced  by  the  illustrious  author  of  the  "  Principia  " 
has  given  them  the  appearance  of  infallibility. 

All  irregularities  of  the  earth's  surface  are  studied 
from  this  point  of  view.  It  is  declared  by  astronomers, 
that  the  relation  of  the  axis  of  the  globe  to  the  plane  of 
its  orbit  has  never  changed  since  its  creation,  except, 
possibly,  by  slow  and  returning  librations  from  tropic  to 
tropic.  Astronomy  and  the  mathematics  are  the  oldest 
sciences  ;  and  have  been  respected  as  the  most  sublime 
and  exact  of  all  the  departments  of  physical  learning. 
Geology,  of  later  birth,  has  held  itself  humbly  sub- 
ordinate to  them  in  all  its  aspects  and  speculations. 
Astronomers  have  promulgated  planetary  laws,  declar- 
ing them  invariable  ;  while  geologists  have  contented 
themselves  with  simple  observations  of  rocks  and  fossils, 
and  striven  to  harmonize  their  doubts  with  the  possible 
errors  of  their  lawgivers.  Astronomers  and  mathema- 
ticians having  declared  the  movements  and  shape  of 
planets  unchangeable,  geologists  have  quietly  accepted 
the  belief,  that  the  present  size  of  our  globe  has  been 
always  the  same.  While  conscious  of  many  violent 
changes  upon  its  surface,  they  have  endeavored  to 
reconcile  their  observations  with  astronomical  theories, 
and  have  decided  that  all  geographical  and  geological 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  35 

phenomena  are  results  of  slow  and  insensible  upheavals 
and  depressions  occupying  indefinite  periods  of  time ; 
that  an  upheaving  mechanism  within  the  globe  is  the 
active  agent  in  producing  all  visible  distributions  of  land 
and  water  and  dislocated  strata ;  that,  while  one  conti- 
nent comes  up,  another  goes  down ;  that  these  changes 
are  alternate  ;  and  that  all  move  in  harmony  with  some 
general  mechanical  law  which  controls  the  rotation  of 
the  earth,  swells  the  equator,  flattens  the  poles,  and 
maintains  its  axis  for  ever  with  the  same  inclination  to 
the  plane  of  the  ecliptic. 

Such  is  the  doctrine,  thus  expressed  in  general  terms, 
in  which  we  are  educated,  and  wherein  I  was  myself 
orthodox,  until  my  eyes  were  opened  as  I  journeyed  from 
country  to  country  by  sea  and  land.  Thus  formerly 
believing,  and  desirous  to  account  for  these  phenomena 
of  upheavals  ;  knowing  other  planets  to  be  uTegular  in 
form  also,  and  supposing  all  cosmographical  changes 
and  dynamical  movements  might  depend  on  some  unit 
of  force,  I,  for  many  years,  labored  to  reduce  phenomena 
observable  in  comets,  in  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  in  the  movements  of  the  surfaces  of  planets, 
to  philosophical  system.  In  the  course  of  those  inves- 
tigations, I  discovered  and  demonstrated  the  existence 
of  a  repulsive  force,  co-extensive,  co-eternal,  co-existent, 
and  co-equal  with  the  force  of  gravitation ;  and  published 
the  results  of  my  inquiries  in  March,  1853.  The  sug- 
gestion of  such  a  force  was  an  innovation  upon  the 
accepted  doctrines  of  astronomy.  As  some  know,  my 
humble  treatise  remained  unnoticed  for  several  years  ; 
and,  at  last,  was  reviled,  in  1857,  by  Benjamin  Pierce,  a 


36  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

famous  professor  of  mathematics,  and  by  Thomas  Hill, 
now  President  of  Harvard  University,  whom  I  am  proud 
to  honor  as  a  profound  and  modest  geometer,  without  a 
living  peer. 

It  was  declared,  that  the  existence  of  such  a  cosmical 
force  was  not  necessary  to  assist  mathematicians  to  a 
knowledge  of  celestial  mechanics,  and  that  therefore  it 
did  not  exist ;  that  the  assertion  of  such  a  force  vitiated 
literature,  was  superfluous  in  science,  and  embarrassing 
to  the  simplicity  so  apparent  in  the  nebular  hypothesis, 
and  in  the  general  system  of  nature,  as  planned,  created, 
and  sustained  by  God.  These,  perhaps  were  powerful 
arguments ;  but,  fortunately  for  science  and  for  truth, 
"  The  Heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  Ar- 
mament showeth  his  handiwork ;  day  unto  day  uttereth 
speech,  and  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge:"  and 
the  most  dogmatic  schoolmen,  when  convinced,  bow  to 
this  evidence  with  alacrity ;  for  on  the  following  year, 
1858,  ever  memorable  in  the  annals  of  astronomy,  ap- 
peared that  wonderful  comet  discovered  by  Donatti,  and 
which  is  distinguished  by  his  name.  The  great  equatorial 
telescope  of  Cambridge  revealed  to  the  elder  Bond  the 
positive  existence^  in  that  body,  of  the  cosmical  force  which 
I  had  already  demonstrated.  But,  to  make  its  existence 
the  more  certain,  Professor  Pierce  applied  the  expe- 
rimentum  crucis  of  his  mathematics  to  Mr.  Bond's 
observations,  and,  as  the  result  of  his  analysis,  declared 
repulsion  to  be,  not  only  a  universal  cosmical  force  acting 
in  harmony  with  gravitation,  but  that  he  was  its  original 
discoverer,  in  like  manner  as  Newton  was  the  discoverer 
of  gravitation.     Lest  any  may  suppose  this  curious  state- 


GEOLOGY   AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  37 

ment  an  exaggeration,  the  fact,  over  his  own  signature, 
may  be  found  printed  in  the  "Boston  Courier,"  of 
Thursday,  Nov.  11,  1858. 

I  refer  to  this  subject  in  this  connection,  only  because 
it  is  involved  in  the  history  of  my  own  special  pursuits, 
and  in  the  developments  of  this  discourse,  leaving  facts 
and  dates  to  the  annals  of  American  science,  which  will 
finally  be  as  severe  as  fate  in  settling  the  merits  of  all 
men,  when  their  standing,  ambition,  and  controversies 
become  nothing  and  avail  nothing. 

Being  satisfied  with  the  application  of  my  hypothesis 
to  the  movements  and  phenomena  of  cosmical  bodies,  and 
having  proven  that  earthquakes  and  volcanic  eruptions 
hold  inverse  numerical  relations  to  the  length  and  sweep 
of  the  radius  vector,  depending  therefore  upon  solar 
causation,  I,  nevertheless,  have  not  been  able  to  recon- 
cile many  geographical  and  geological  anomalies  observed 
by  myself,  with  the  theory  of  upheavals  as  a  result  of 
cosmical  repulsion.  I  therefore  resolved  to  study  that 
subject  more  carefully,  and  to  travel  over  new  fields  to 
confirm  or  disprove  my  former  views.  Those  views, 
borrowed  entirely  from  the  geologists,  have  undergone  a 
radical  change.  The  doctrine  which  I  initiated  in  my 
memoir  on  "  Geological  Eevolutions,"  read  before  this  so- 
ciety on  the  5th  of  October,  1859,  I  shall  now  attempt 
to  establish  by  a  more  thorough  treatment. 

Plainly  stated,  the  propositions  are  these :  That  the 
irregularities  of  the  earth's  surface  (and  of  all  planets), 
i.e.,  our  physical  geography,  are  the  results  of  sudden  de- 
pressions and  ingulfments  by  which  the  globe  has,  from 
time  to  time,  been  absolutely  reduced  in  size,  and  violent- 


38  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

ly  careened,  in  different  directions,  toward  the  sun ;  that 
these  events  and  consequent  cataclysms  have  occurred 
many  times  since  vegetable  and  animal  life  appeared  in 
its  primeval  seas,  rendering  it  probable,  that  the  earth, 
when  first  giving  birth  to  life,  was  from  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  miles  larger  than  now  in  all  its  diameters  ; 
that  upheavals,  while  they  really  do  exist,  are  excep- 
tional and  limited,  as  in  the  case  of  volcanoes,  dikes  of 
igneous  material,  earthquakes,  and  slight  oscillations  of 
coast,  —  all  which  are  attempts  of  the  repulsive  force  to 
upheave,  and  resolve  matter  back  to  its  elementary  dif- 
fusion, counteracted  and  rendered  abortive  by  gravita- 
tion. 

Such  are  the  principal  points  of  this  thesis ;  proofs  to 
sustain  which,  will  be  succinctly  presented  in  the  subse- 
quent disquisition. 

Gravitation  is  admitted  by  all. astronomers  and  physi- 
cists as  an  established  fact  and  universal  law ;  and  is  be- 
yond discussion.  It  controls  the  position  of  all  bodies 
upon,  and  suspended  around,  this  planet,  and  establishes 
their  equilibrium  according  to  the  major  amounts  of 
matter  in  their  different  diameters  ;  the  major  diameters 
always  tending  toward  its  centre.  It  may  be  illustrated 
in  countless  ways  by  the  simple  process  of  weighing 
bodies  of  angular  and  spheroidal  forms.  Bodies,  what- 
ever their  form,  size,  or  weight,  when  suspended,  and  free 
to  move  in  all  directions,  and  settle  into  equilibrium,  will 
finally  assume  that  position  toward  the  centre  of  the 
earth,  which  coincides  with  the  greatest  number  of  parti- 
cles ;  in  other  words,  with  the  greatest  density  or  weight 
of  that  diameter  which  is  immediately  perpendicular  to  the 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  39 

surface,  and  in  a  line  with  the  radius  between  it  and  the 
earth's  centre.  Let  any  given  body  of  any  size  or  form 
or  weight  be  thus  suspended,  adjusted,  and  tranquil  in 
equilibrium ;  if  undisturbed  by  internal  or  external  ac- 
tion, it  will  remain  for  ever  at  rest.  Let  any  force  within 
its  surface  disturb  the  relations  of  its  various  parts,  its 
original  equilibrium  will  be  destroyed ;  and  it  will  imme- 
diately change  its  adjustments  to  the  centre  of  the  globe. 
Let  its  form  be  changed  by  any  external  action,  either 
by  cutting  off  a  portion ;  or,  if  it  be  a  malleable  body,  by 
hammering ;  if  an  iceberg,  by  melting :  the  effect  will 
be  the  same,  and  instantaneous  or  slow,  according  to  the 
application  of  external  force.  A  thousand  acts  and  ex- 
periments of  this  sort,  observable  in  every-day  life,  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  operation  of  this  common  law. 
All  matter  and  masses  within  the  range  of  the  earth's  at- 
traction are  bound  to  its  centre  by  this  method  of  action 
of  this  law.  It  is  the  operation  of  gravitation  in  pro- 
ducing geological  changes,  which  I  propose  to  unfold 
in  proceeding  with  the  sequel. 

That  we  may  study  its  action  in  a  wider  sphere,  where 
it  begins  to  assume  cosmographical  developments,  let  us, 
for  a  moment,  discuss  the  moon's  relation  to  our  planet. 
We  will  discard,  in  this  connection,  all  discussion  and 
speculation  respecting  the  causes  of  rotation  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  whether  they  arise  from  internal  forces, 
or  external  impulses  communicated  by  nebular  condensa- 
tions. The  moon,  as  all  know,  presents  one  of  its  hemi- 
spheres only,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  revolves 
on  its  axis  in  the  same  time  that  it  performs  its  synodic 
revolutions.     Astronomers  consider  this  "  a  very  singu- 


40  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED   TO 

lar  feature."  They  declare  that  it  belongs  to  all  satellites 
of  all  planets,  that  its  cause  is  unknown,  and  that  "  It  is 
one  of  those  dark  points  which  stir  us  to  profounder  in- 
quiry concerning  the  scheme  in  which  we  are."  I  quote 
the  language  of  a  distinguished  European  professor  of 
astronomy.  Now,  if  we  apply  the  common  law  of  gravi- 
tation to  this  singular  feature  in  our  satellite,  untram- 
melled by  theory  of  any  sort,  the  problem  will  solve 
itself  with  extreme  simplicity,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
illustrate  the  application  of  the  same  law  to  still  wider 
fields  of  research.  The  moon,  suspended  in  space,  and 
in  a  comparative  vacuum  above  the  earth,  yields  in  all 
its  parts  to  gravitation,  and  settles  in  equilibrium  toward 
the  earth's  centre ;  just  as  an  orange  will  gravitate,  or 
a  pear,  an  anvil,  a  huge  bowlder,  or  a  loaded  ship,  or  an 
iceberg  in  the  ocean.  Orange,  pear,  anvil,  bowlder, 
loaded  ship,  iceberg,  and  moon  all  follow  the  same  law ; 
and  those  of  their  diameters  which  contain  the  most  mat- 
ter, in  other  words,  the  greatest  weight,  assume  that 
position  towards  the  earth's  centre,  which  gravitation  de- 
mands by  its  inexorable  force.  Unlike  the  other  objects, 
however,  the  moon  moves  around  the  earth,  free,  in  every 
point  of  its  orbit,  to  sway  toward  the  earth's  centre  in 
such  a  way,  that  its  heaviest  or  major  diameter  shall 
always  remain  perpendicular  to  the  earth's  surface ;  and 
the  axis  of  that  diameter  will  always  exist  as  a  projec- 
tion of  the  radii  of  the  earth  over  which  it  moves  in 
its  synodic  revolutions.  This  is  self-evident,  and  cannot 
be  otherwise,  if  gravitation  be  a  universal  truth. 

Of  course,  this  demonstration  forcibly  illustrates  the 
existence  of  a  great  cosmical  law  of  repulsion,  now  ad- 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  41 

mitted  by  astronomers,  which  holds  the  satellite  at  definite 
distances  from,  while  gravitation  fixes  its  relative  position 
to,  the  earth.  Both  acting  together  define  its  orbit ; 
while  the  moon  itself,  as  a  simple  object  suspended  in 
space  and  weighed  by  the  earth,  turns  its  heaviest  axis 
toward  it,  like  any  other  mass  of  matter  of  different  form, 
size,  or  composition. 

Thus  is  explained  that  anomalous  feature  in  the  moon*s 
motion,  or  rather  in  its  state  of  rest,  which  has  hereto- 
fore been  an  inexplicable  problem,  in  consequence  of  its 
being  entangled  with  projectile  and  nebular  hypotheses, 
and  not  being  considered  a  simple  body,  subject  through- 
out its  structure  to  the  law  of  gravitation. 

Now,. as  gravitation  is  a  central  force,  and  is  exerted 
by  the  sun  upon  the  earth,  in  like  manner  as  the  earth 
acts  upon  the  orange,  pear,  anvil,  ship,  iceberg,  and  the 
moon,  let  us  permit  ourselves  as  geologists  to  boldly  study 
the  earth  from  material,  rather  than  from  mathematical 
and  astronomical  points  of  view. 

Discarding,  as  in  the  case  of  the  moon,  all  discussions 
relative  to  the  causes  of  rotation  in  the  heavenly  bodies, 
we  will  consider  them  as  simple  masses  of  matter,  with 
gravitating  relations  to  each  other.  The  larger  masses 
always  control  the  movements  of  the  smaller;  and  all 
act  upon  each  other  in  the  directions  of  their  largest  or 
heaviest  diameters.  Thus  you  see  nearly  all  the  planets, 
whatever  their  distances  in  the  remoteness  of  space,  con- 
fined in  the  narrow  compass  of  the  zodiac ;  and  every 
one  of  them  moving  toward  and  around  the  most  pon- 
derable diameter  of  the  sun.  Eclipses,  transits,  opposi- 
tions, and  conjunctions  constantly  occurring  in  our  solar 


42  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

system,  are  sufficient  proofs  of  this.  And,  if  this  point 
of  philosophical  deduction  be  extended  into  the  broadest 
cosmical  expansions,  it  will  appear  plain  to  the  profound 
thinker,  that,  while  the  sun  causes  the  earth's  heaviest 
diameter  to  preponderate  towards  its  own  heaviest  diame- 
ter, the  same  circumstance  must  also  indicate  the  region 
of  space  where  those  masses  exist,  which  impress  upon 
the  sun  its  spheroidal  shape,  and  control  its  equatorial 
motions.  As  the  object  of  this  paper,  however,  is  not  to 
dilate  upon  cosmical  physics,  nor  indulge  in  speculations 
of  any  sort,  but  only  to  show  the  relations  of  celestial 
dynamics  to  geography  and  geology  in  their  physical 
aspect,  I  will  draw  and  confine  attention  to  our  own 
planet,  and  to  the  changes  that  transpire  upon  its 
surface. 

The  equinoctial  plane  is  inclined  to  the  plane  of  the 
ecliptic,  to  the  extent  of  23°  28' ;  but  the  general  ful- 
ness of  the  equatorial  regions  of  the  earth  is  such,  that 
astronomers  declare  it  subject,  through  foreign  influences, 
to  periodical  librations  from  tropic  to  tropic,  embracing 
cycles  of  many  thousand  years.  Some  have  supposed 
that  these  alternate  and  insensible  oscillations  would  ac- 
count for  the  many  changes  which  have  evidently  taken 
place  in  the  sea's  level  at  different  epochs.  Geologists 
of  practical  acquirements  cannot  perceive,  in  this  as- 
sumption, sufficient  cause  to  account  for  many  extraordi- 
nary facts  within  the  range  of  their  observation.  But 
this  statement  of  mathematical  astronomers  demon- 
strates the  general  truth,  that  the  equatorial  regions  of  the 
planet  are  the  most  ponderable ;  and  that  its  equilibrium 
is   sensitively  affected  by  perturbing  causes.     Now,  it 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  4S 

matters  not,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  how  causes 
operate  upon  this  globe  to  produce  disturbances  in  its 
equipoise.  They  may  act  from  without.  They  may  act 
from  within.  Causes  acting  externally  lie  in  the  do- 
main of  astronomy,  and  require  no  attention,  especially 
since  such  causes  have  been  shown,  in  my  published 
discussions  of  earthquake  and  volcanic  phenomena,  to 
end  in  displays  of  force,  which  appear  to  be  re-actionary 
from  the  centre  to  the  periphery  of  cosmical  bodies.  If 
discussed  at  all,  they  will  only  add  weight  to  the  sequel 
and  burden  of  this  discourse.  Causes  acting  withm 
the  crusts  of  planets,  and  their  results,  become,  then,  the 
legitimate  and  exclusive  points  for  consideration.  As- 
tronomy and  mathematics  are  left  behind.  Our  study 
becomes  purely  cosmographical ;  and,  confined  to  this 
globe,  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  puzzling  problems 
of  physical  geography  and  geology. 

How  were  the  irregularities  of  the  surface  of  the 
earth  produced]  How  came  undecomposed  and  entire 
mammoths  enveloped  in  ice  near  the  north  pole  ?  How 
came  fossil  tropical  vegetation  of  more  remote  ages 
buried  and  cropping  out  in  arctic  regions?  How  came 
conglomerates,  hundreds  of  feet  in  thickness,  and  scores 
of  miles  in  area,  massed  together,  without  regard 
to  size  or  arrangement  of  material]  How  came  the 
rocky  structure  of  the  globe,  and  geological  deposits 
of  all  ages,  broken  up  and  dislocated,  inverted  and 
slanted  in  all  directions  ?  Every  geological  age  has  had 
its  drifts  and  its  overturns.  What  agency  or  mechanism 
produced  them  ?  How  came  the  remains  of  extinct  ele- 
phants ten  thousand  feet  above  the  ocean,  and  five  hun- 


44  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

dred  feet  deep  in  silt,  in  one  hemisphere ;  while,  at  the 
antipodes,  they  are  below  the  sea  ?  How  came  moun- 
tain-chains and  old  volcanoes  submerged  and  quenched 
in  the  fathomless  depths  of  the  Pacific  and  Indian 
Oceans  1  How  came  old  corals,  and  marine  forms  of 
endless  sorts,  in  the  heart  of   every  continent? 

Let  us  interrogate, — not  Moses  nor  the  prophets,  not 
Newton  nor  the  geometers, —  but  the  earth,  and  let  it 
answer. 

The  ancients  supposed  the  earth  unchangeable,  and 
tliat  it  had  eternally  existed  as  it  appears  to  us  at  the 
present  time.  Leibnitz  first  comprehended  the  evidence 
that  the  earth  began  to  exist  in  a  state  of  igneous  fusion, 
and  that  life  must  have  had  a  comparatively  recent  be- 
ginning upon  its  surface.  He  further  conjectured,  that 
its  radiation  of  heat  had  produced  contraction  of  its 
mass.  From  his  time  to  Cuvier,  and  even  to  our  own 
time,  a  succession  of  physicists  and  naturalists  have 
stumbled  on  through  the  mazes  of  discovery,  puzzled  by 
their  own  observations,  doubting  their  own  senses,  and, 
naturally  enough,  theorizing  upon  the  problems  en- 
countered at  every  step.  Every  great  philosopher  has 
astonished  his  age  by  his  new  announcements,  and  still 
truth  has  been  only  progressive.  In  the  activity  and  con- 
fusion of  inquiry  and  speculation,  important  landmarks 
in  science  have  been  sometimes  lost  and  forgotten.  In- 
deed, in  the  course  of  researches,  since  I  began  to  write 
this  paper,  I  find  that  Leibnitz,  in  his  studio,  imagined 
and  divined,  in  1683,  what  my  own  observations  by 
travel  have  compelled  me,  for  several  years,  to  suspect 
and  search  after,  and  at  last  conclusively  believe,  —  that 


GEOLOGY   AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  45 

vast  caverns  exist  beneath  the  earth's  crust,  the  roofs  of 
which  falling  in  make  large  basins  which  receive  the 
seas,  and  that  what  remains  above  the  water  becomes 
dry  land  and  mountains.  I  find,  also,  that  Deluc,  a  sa- 
gacious observer  and  profound  thinker,  who  studied  the 
Alps  and  Jura,  published  similar  views  in  1779,  a  cen- 
tury later.  Deluc  said,  "  Ancient  continents  have  sub- 
sided, the  sea,  overflowing  this  depressed  space,  has  left  its 
ancient  bed  dried  up,  which  forms  our  continents."  But 
subsequent  theorists,  adopting  the  mathematical  conclu- 
sion of  Newton  respecting  the  earth  as  a  spheroid,  and 
desirous  to  harmonize  all  discoveries  in  physics  and  nature 
with  the  sacred  cosmogony  of  Moses,  have  conceived  that 
the  internal  fires  are  a  mechanism  perpetually  at  work 
to  upheave  the  crust,  while  depressions  are  only  conse- 
quences ;  or,  that  one  follows  the  other  so  as  to  allow  the 
earth  to  maintain  the  same  oblate  figure  and  general  size. 
Notwithstanding  the  accumulations  of  knowledge,  a  cen- 
tury after  Leibnitz,  it  is  said,  by  an  authority  no  less 
eminent  than  Flourens,  that  Deluc  did  "  not  perceive  the 
true  mechanism  which  is  the  upheavmg  of  mountains  ;" 
that  "  he  stops  at  the  apparent  mechanism^  which  is  the 
subsidence  of  plains."  It  is  possible  that  Deluc  did  not 
understand  the  re-action  of  the  central  fluid  mass  upon 
the  crust  of  the  planet ;  and  I  think  it  questionable 
whether  it  is  yet  perfectly  understood,  although  I  was 
once  orthodox  in  the  present  ruling  faith.  In  the  days 
of  Leibnitz,  nothing  was  known  of  geology,  or  of  the 
data  which  compose  existing  science :  even  in  the 
time  of  Deluc,  but  little  progress  had  been  made  in  this 
department  of  knowledge.     It  is  only  of  late  that  geolo- 


46  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

gy  has  crystallized  into  solid  system.  It  now  invokes 
truth,  wherever  it  will  explain  her  problems,  and  rejects 
error,  wherever  it  palpably  appears.  Still,  the  opinions 
of  Leibnitz,  respecting  the  radiation  of  heat  from  this 
cooling  globe,  have  been  applied  by  Cordier  to  a  theory 
of  condensation,  which,  more  lately,  has  been  explained 
by  Dana,  as  resulting  in  corrugations,  or  puckerings  of  the 
crust,  as  the  shrinking  of  an  apple  puckers  its  skin ;  by 
which  process,  continents  and  mountain-systems  are  gradu- 
ally developed,  and  elevated  from  the  bosom  of  the  waters. 
In  all  the  theories  of  upheaval,  however,  geologists  ad- 
mit (because  the  fact  cannot  be  rejected)  that  violent 
movements  of  the  seas,  and  violent  convulsions  of  the 
whole  world,  have,  at  some  time  or  other,  supervened. 

Thus  the  discussion  culminates  upon  the  great  ad- 
mitted facts,  that  the  oceans  have,  from  time  to  time, 
violently  and  suddenly  moved,  and  that  the  planet  has 
been  also  profoundly  convulsed,  and  its  surface  over- 
turned. How  can  the  surface  of  the  globe  be  violently 
overturned]  How  can  the  oceans  be  suddenly  and  vio- 
lently moved  I  Isaac  Newton  and  his  followers  cannot, 
necessarily,  believe  in  any  violent  overturns,  nor  sudden 
movements  of  the  waters.  Geologists,  however,  have 
unequivocal  evidence  that  both  these  phenomena  have 
occurred  at  various  times.  Isaac  Newton  and  the  as- 
tronomers say,  the  earth  has  always  maintained  the  same 
obliquity  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  and  that  alternate 
summer  and  winter  have  prevailed  in  the  northern  and 
southern  hemispheres  from*  the  beginning  of  time. 
Geologists,  supposing  these  opinions  of  astronomers  to 
be   infallible,  and  knowing  that  tropical  climates  have 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  47 

existed  at  the  north  pole,  and  that  glacial  cold  has  pre- 
vailed in  what  are  now  temperate  zones,  have  indulged 
the  unnatural  error,  that  the  earth,  enjoying  universal 
warmth,  once  bloomed  in  universal  verdure ;  and  that, 
subsequently  and  quite  lately,  a  climate  so  intensely  cold 
has  prevailed,  that  our  temperate  latitudes  have  been 
clothed  with  ice  full  fifteen  thousand  feet  in  thickness. 
Astronomers  and  physicists  must  laugh  at  such  fancies  of 
the  geologists ;  and  geologists  must  doubt  their  own  reason 
also,  when  all  know,  that  if  the  earth  has  maintained  its 
present  axial  relations  to  the  sun,  even  admitting  its 
librations,  its  summers  and  winters,  its  heats  and  its  cold, 
would  always  be  nearly  the  same.  The  assumption  of  the 
astronomers  sets  at  nought  the  presumption  of  the  ge- 
ologists. We  must,  therefore,  seek  other  causes ;  and  if, 
in  the  severity  of  our  inquiry,  we  find  reasons  to  doubt 
the  positions  of  both,  we  must  stand  upon  the  facts,  and 
let  the  mathematicians  change  their  bases  of  calculation. 
Geologists  will  welcome  any  theory  which  can  solve  their 
problems,  reduce  their  observations  into  system,  and 
bring  their  science  into  harmonious  relations  with 
natural  laws. 

When  geologists  abandon  all  hypotheses,  and  rely 
upon  the  earth  alone  for  evidence,  the  fact  becomes  ap- 
parent, that  the  globe  has  never  been  stable,  long  at  a 
time,  in  its  equatorial  aspects  toward  the  sun.  It  has, 
beyond  all  question,  as  my  observations  and  reasoning 
teach  me,  been  subject  to  sudden  and  frequent  changes 
of  equipoise.  It  hangs  in  a  vacuum,  and  is  more  sensi- 
tive to  disturbances  of  equilibrium  than  any  thing  upon 
its  surface  by  which  we   may  illustrate  the  action  of 


48  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED   TO 

gravitation.  For  instance,  a  ship  is  loaded  for  sea,  and 
her  drafts  are  measured.  If  you  shift  a  ton  of  her  cargo, 
or  her  anchor,  from  bow  to  stern,  or  from  side  to  side,  she 
inclines  according  to  the  change  of  weight.  But  the 
facility  of  the  ship's  motion  is  impeded  by  the  friction  of 
the  medium  in  which  she  rests.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
multiply  illustrations  upon  this  point.  The  earth  sails 
in  a  vacuum,  and  is  not  hindered,  in  any  of  its  move- 
ments, by  any  resistance  ;  and  its  surface  holds  the  same 
relations  of  gravity  towards  the  sun  that  a  ship  holds  to 
the  centre  of  the  globe  w^hile  floating  upon  a  calm 
ocean.  Even  admitting  the  doctrine  of  upheavals  of 
continents  by  indirect  action  of  the  sun  or  otherwise, 
the  effect  would  be  the  same  upon  its  equilibrium,  al- 
though not  so  great  as  to  admit  that  the  globe,  when 
it  first  brought  forth  life,  was  much  larger,  and  that  im- 
mense and  sudden  depressions  had  taken  place,  into 
which  the  oceans  had  rushed,  leaving  new  land  and 
mountains  on  a  new  earth. 

Now,  since  the  earth  is  a  sphere  of  molten  matter, 
hardened  on  its  surface  by  radiation  of  heat ;  floats  in  a 
a  vacuum  suspended  between  the  equally  powerful,  but 
unequally  acting  forces  of  solar  repulsion  and  solar  at- 
traction ;  is  sensitive  to  the  slightest  causes  tending  to 
disturb  its  equipoise ;  will  turn  toward  the  sun  without 
resistance,  like  any  other  mass  of  atoms  free  to  gravi- 
tate to  an  attracting  centre,  according  to  its  major-axial 
amount  of  matter,  —  now,  considering  these  well-known 
postulates,  none  will  doubt  the  sequences,  when  causes 
can  be  shown  which  will  tend  to  disturb  its  equi- 
poise. 


GEOLOGY   AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  49 

The  positions  presented  and  insisted  upon  are  these : 
That,  when  the  globe  was  cool  enough  to  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  the  simpler  forms  of  organized  life,  it  was 
much  larger  in  all  its  diameters  than  it  is  at  this  time ; 
that  cataclysms  which  have  occurred,  and  divided 
time  into  geological  ages,  have  arisen  from  sudden 
disturbances  of  the  earth's  equilibrium,  its  major  axis 
always  violently  turning  toward  the  sun  ;  that  these 
events  have  supervened  many  times,  in  consequence  of 
the  progressive  radiation  of  heat  having  contracted  the 
fluid  nucleus,  making  immense  voids  between  the  crust 
and  molten  mass,  into  which  the  crust  has  suddenly 
sunk,  creating  vast  basins  whereinto  the  waters  have 
rushed,  resulting  in  new  oceans,  new  plateaus,  islands, 
and  mountains,  in  the  disruption  of  strata,  and  in  a 
general  wreck  of  Nature,  and  so  disturbing  former  re- 
lations of  matter  and  force  as  to  impart  to  the  globe 
new  equatorial  directions  ;  and  that,  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  these  events,  the  shorter  axes  of  the  globe 
—  what  at  present  are  our  poles  —  are  not  the  result  of 
flattening  by  rotation,  but  by  a  sudden  falling-in  of  sur- 
face somewhere,  breaking  the  symmetry  of  the  sphere, 
and  producing  an  irregular  spheroid :  from  which  it 
follows,  as  a  final  corollary,  that  each  great  division  of 
time  has  been  ushered  in  with  new  equators  and  new 
poles,  and  that  the  demonstration  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
respecting  the  oblateness  of  the  planet  being  the  result 
of  its  rotation  is  an  error,  and  unworthy  of  further  con- 
sideration among  geologists. 

Physical  geography  shows  the  earth  to  be  irregular 
and  unequal  in  all  its  latitudes  and  longitudes.     The 

7 


50  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

northern  and  southern  hemispheres  are  not  symmetrical. 
The  antarctic  region  displays  a  continent  with  its  sub- 
terranean caverns  vented  by  a  burning  mountain ;  while 
the  arctic  presents  a  vast  depression  bounded  by  abrupt 
coasts,  and  containing  deep  seas  which  flow  between  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific.  The  interior  of  every  continent, 
and  the  heart  of  every  sea,  smoke  with  the  fire  of  that 
everlasting  burning,  which,  ushering  in  the  creation  of 
the  planet,  proclaims,  as  eloquently  as  the  voice  of  God 
can  utter,  the  processes  which  have  hollowed  out  its 
bowels,  and  fashioned  its  surface,  and  fitted  it  for  life 
and  instinct  and  intelligence.  The  causes  which  pro- 
duce these  irregularities  and  diff'erences  lie  and  act 
within  the  globe.  All  know  the  eff'ects  of  radiation  of 
heat.  It  is  the  same  in  a  planet  as  in  a  furnace  full 
of  melted  rock  or  metal.  Radiation  results  in  crystalliza- 
tion, either  regular  or  amorphous.  Heat  is  convertible 
into  magnetism,  and  is  its  equivalent  everywhere.  If, 
upon  the  surface  of  the  globe,  we  be  unconscious  of  the 
radiation,  from  its  incandescent  nucleus,  we  are  not  ig- 
norant of  terrestrial  magnetism,  nor  of  the  necessity  of 
its  agency  in  crystallization.  If,  then,  internal  heat  as- 
sume the  form  and  function  of  terrestrial  magnetism, 
crystallizing  all  rocks,  or  metals  and  their  compounds, 
pouring  its  surplus  currents  into  space,  and  kindling  the 
very  fires  of  the  sun  itself,  we  no  longer  wait  for  knowl- 
edge of  the  process  through  which  the  molten  nucleus 
of  the  globe  shrinks,  and  by  which  vast  voids  insensibly 
ensue  between  the  nucleus  and  the  crust.  Earthquakes 
which  jar  the  planet  from  pole  to  pole,  which  prostrate 
cities   by  instantaneous  blows,  which  raise  a  thousand 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  51 

miles  of  coast  a  few  inches,  or  a  few  feet,  and  let  them 
dawn  again ;  volcanoes,  the  merest  bubbles  and  vents  of 
bursting  worlds,  whose  eruptions  of  all  sorts  are  visible 
in  every  hemisphere  ;  terrible  detonations,  whose  bel- 
lowings  are  heard  throughout  hundreds*  of  leagues  of 
surface  ;  the  simultaneous  extinction  of  Vesuvius  with 
the  submergence  of  a  part  of  Lisbon ;  the  agitations  of 
Hecla,  and  the  movements  of  the  waters  in  the  North- 
American  lakes,  on  Nov.  1,  1755,  —  all  this  class  of  phe- 
nomena indicates  and  proves  the  existence  of  immense 
subterranean  voids.  There  is  abundant  evidence  to 
show  that  they  exist  in  this  age.  Their  capacity  we 
cannot  measure.  The  present  surface  of  the  earth  is 
comparatively  recent.  The  last  great  cataclysm  is,  geo- 
logically speaking,  not  very  ancient.  Accumulating 
evidence  compels  us  to  believe,  that  one  of  these  de- 
structive events  has  occurred  since  the  human  race  was 
created.  The  facts  I  have  presented  plainly  indicate 
that  another  is  in  the  course  of  preparation.  Each 
of  these  vast  periodical  voids  is  filled  by  coUapsion  of 
the  surface.  The  planet  must  reel  under  these  sudden 
and  violent  transpositions  of  matter  and  force,  and  must 
oscillate  in  its  orbit  to  and  fro,  before  settling  into 
stable  equilibrium,  with  new  equatorial  aspects  toward 
the  sun.  The  major  diameter  will  always  preponderate 
toward  the  major  diameter  of  the  solar  centre.  The 
minor  diameters  are  never  produced,  and  never  have 
been  produced,  by  diurnal  rotation.  The  theory  on 
which  this  result  has  been  asserted  fails  when  applied 
to  the  form  of  some  other  planets.  Every  theory 
which  will  not  cover  all  well-determined  facts  is  pal- 


52  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

pably  fallacious,  and  ought  to  be  discarded  by  exact 
science.  , 

"When  we  examine  the  general  configuration  of  the 
earth's  surface,  and  especially  its  mountahi- systems,  it 
becomes  apparent  that  their  anticlinals  can  as  well  re- 
sult from  depression  of  their  flanks  as  from  the  upheaval 
of  their  axes ;  and,  taking  this  fact  in  connection  with  a 
constantly  condensing  nucleus  and  increasing  voids  be- 
tween the  crust  and  nucleus,  it  is  much  more  reasonable 
to  suppose  the  former  mechanism  to  have  prevailed 
J:han  the  latter. 

By  a  more  detailed  survey  of  the  surface,  we  observe 
minor  irregularities,  so  unequal  and  unconformable  in 
various  particulars  as  to  reduce  the  theory  of  upheav- 
als to  ABSURDITY ;  iuasmuch  as  we  are  compelled  to 
regard  the  upheaving  force  (which  is  no  other  than 
the  molten  nucleus)  as  acting  like  the  irregular  dis- 
charge of  so  many  batteries  of  different  power  beneath 
the  crust,  forcing  up  one  area  more  than  another  to 
form  lesser  and  greater  hills,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
acting  as  an  aggregate,  pressing  as  a  unit,  beneath  en- 
tire hemispheres,  so  as  to  elevate  certain  lines  many 
thousand  miles  in  length,  from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand 
feet  high  from  the  bottoms  of  old  and  deep  oceans. 

When  this  theory  is  contrasted  with  that  which  I  am 
so  bold  as  to  advocate,  the  same  facts  will  be  presented 
under  new  and  more  natural  aspects.  Each  succeeding 
cataclysm,  considered  as  a  universal  catastrophe,  must 
leave  the  globe  a  wreck,  like  the  ruin  of  some  im- 
mense cathedral  whose  dome  and  arches  have  fallen  in. 
Cornice  and  frieze,  pillar  and  entablature,  broken  and 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  53 

dislocated,  lie  at  all  angles  of  inclination,  and  in  the 
utmost  confusion.  So  it  is  with  the  ancient  rocks  and 
more  modern  strata.  Only  to  this  mighty  wreck  have 
been  added  the  outgushings  of  molten  matter  into  fis- 
sures, creating  dykes,  and  the  unsparing  movements  of 
oceans  sweeping  loose  materials  and  perishing  forms 
of  all  sorts,  from  one  place  to  another,  partially  covering 
up  and  disguising  the  desolation,  and  softening  the  gen- 
eral outlines  of  a  new  world. 

However  these  remarkable  changes  may  be  effected, 
whether  slowly  or  suddenly,  in  one  way  or  in  another, 
the  equilibrium  of  the  planet  must  be  more  or  less  dis- 
turbed, and  its  tropical  relations  to  the  sun  must  undergo 
slow  or  sudden  modifications.  Gravitation  is  a  constant. 
Geologists  know  that  the  form  and  features  of  the  planet 
have  undergone  frequent  changes.  If  Newton  has  dis- 
covered an  eternal  and  universal  law,  the  splendor  of 
his  mathematical  authority  cannot  subvert  nor  weaken 
it.  The  calculus  is  positive,  if  it  involve  no  error  in 
quantity  nor  development.  If  the  spheroidal  form  of 
the  earth  agree  approximately  with  the  deductions 
of  mathematicians  from  mechanical  data,  it  can  only 
he  accidental;  for  the  rotation  of  the  globe  has  evi- 
dently no  more  to  do  with  the  flattening  of  its  poles 
than  it  has  in  hollowing  out  an  arctic  basin,  or  elevating 
an  antarctic  continent.  In  the  days  of  Newton,  nothing 
was  known  of  geology.  Great  minds  marvelled  only  at 
the  extent  and  revelations  of  the  starry  heavens.  The 
world  w^as  busy  in  bending  all  discovery  into  harmo- 
ny with  the  sacred  cosmogony.  Scientific  men  have, 
ever  since,  been  misguided  and  hampered  by  sacerdotal 


54  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

ignorance  and  superstition,  and  by  the  arrogance  and 
viciousness  of  ecclesiastical  domination  everywhere.  It 
is  only  of  late  that  geologists  have  dared  to  question  the 
real  antiquity  of  the  world,  or  attempted  to  reduce  their 
facts  to  science.  Even  now,  men  looked  upon  as  great, 
anointed  by  kings  and  senates  and  universities  for  the 
splendor  of  their  abilities,  are  writing  books,  distorting 
facts,  and  wasting  time  in  endeavoring  to  reconcile 
modern  science  with  the  sublime  fancies  of  the  ancient 
oriental  philosophy.  It  is  impossible  to  wed  the  living 
to  the  dead,  or  to  create  a  breathing  mastodon  from  an 
antediluvian  skeleton.  When  geologists  stand  wholly 
aloof  from  astronomical  and  theocratical  dogmas,  apply 
high  physics  to  their  special  pursuits,  and  walk  boldy  as 
Nature  and  lleason  lead  them,  many  phenomena  will  be 
simply  accounted  for  which  have  heretofore  appeared 
inexplicable,  and  beyond  the  reach  of  man. 

Thus,  if  we  assume  that  the  globe  was  one  hundred 
or  three  hundred  miles  greater  in  all  its  diameters  when 
its  crust  became  hard,  and  was  bathed  with  the  earliest 
seas,  and  when  marine  plants  and  trilobites  and  mollus- 
ca  began  to  appear,  the  lithological  characteristics  of 
the  palaeozoic  ages  will  be  more  acceptably  deciphered. 
So,  successively,  with  the  carboniferous  periods  whose 
vast  areas  have  been  folded  up  and  overflowed,  and 
whose  fields  for  reproduction  have  been  so  numerous 
and  extensive  as  to  convince  us  that  arctic  America,  dur- 
ing those  remote  ages,  presented  tropical  positions  to 
the  sun.  It  will  be  the  same,  if  we  study  the  coasts  of 
this  modern  epoch.  Their  fresh  exposures  and  abrupt 
aspects,  especially  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  where  I  have 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  55 

obsei-ved  them  almost  uninterruptedly  from  38°  north 
to  14°  south  latitude,  and  around  Terra-del-Fuego,  and 
along  Patagonia,  in  the  Atlantic,  indicate  sudden  vio- 
lence everywhere.  The  action  of  dashing  waves  and  of 
running  water  has  been  over-estimated  by  geologists.  I 
have  observed  this  widely,  long,  and  carefully.  The  in- 
dications of  violent  abrasion  do  not  proceed  from  this 
cause,  but  from  the  breaking -off  of  continuous  areas, 
which,  in  vanishing  into  depths  below,  leave  behind 
them  portions  of  their  wreck  in  the  form  of  reefs,  or 
precipitous  rocks,  or  sugar-loaf  peaks  often  projecting 
hundreds  of  feet  above  the  waves,  like  the  Eock  of  Gib- 
raltar and  Apes'  Hill  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  strait 
(the  Colmnn(£  Her  culls  of  the  ancients),  which,  observed 
from  this  point  of  view,  will  convince  the  scientist  that 
they  were  left  standing  when  the  intervening  area  was 
submerged,  together  with  the  entire  bed  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea.  If  the  forms,  relative  positions,  and  former 
connections  of  reefs,  rocks,  islets,  and  sugar-loaf  peaks 
in  general,  be  candidly  studied  by  the  light  of  both 
these  theories,  —  by  that  of  slow  upheavals  and  that  of 
sudden  subsidences  of  surrounding  areas,  —  I  have  little 
doubt  that  the  present  doctrine  of  geology  will  become 
greatly  modified,  and  that  the  views  I  advance  will  be- 
come the  leading  ones  in  the  science. 

When  observation  is  pursued  further,  and  shall 
embrace  certain  larger  and  more  isolated  points  with 
perpendicular  and  profound  sides,  —  such  as  the  St. 
Helenas  and  Fernando-de-Narhonas  in  the  Atlantic  ;  the 
St.  Lorenzos,  Chinchas,  and  Ballistas,  in  the  Pacific ;  and 
the  St.  Paul's  and  Amsterdams  in  the  Indian  oceans,  — 


56  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

a  number  of  which  I  have  specially  noticed  or  explored, 
I  feel  assured  that  they  must  be  regarded  as  vestiges 
of  more  extensive  lands,  which,  in  falling  from  greater 
heights,  have  left  these  above  the  water,  rather  than  as 
primitive  masses  pushed  up  from  immense  depths  by 
such  circumscribed  and  limited  displays  of  force  as  their 
form,  height,  and  structure  would  indicate  to  have  been 
exerted  upon  them  by  present  geological  theory. 

This  entire  subject,  including,  as  it  does,  physical 
geography  at  large,  and  geology  in  its  minutest  details, 
requires  candid  study,  and  a  re-survey  from  this  new 
and  commanding  point  of  view. 

At  the  same  time,  I  wish  to  state  distinctly  that  I  am 
far  from  doubting  or  rejecting  the  dynamical  agency  of 
repulsive  forces  within  the  globe,  as  a  means  to  effect 
limited  changes  upon  its  surface.  Trap-dikes,  inunda- 
tions of  lava  from  volcanoes,  the  upheaval  of  volcanoes 
themselves,  agitations  and  fissures  of  the  crust  by  earth- 
quakes, —  all  are  the  results  of  enormous  dynamical 
power,  which  acts  from  the  centre  to  the  surface  every- 
where, alike  at  the  poles  and  equator,  and  in  every 
radius  of  the  planet.  While  this  power  sustains  the 
roof,  or  never-ending  dome  of  the  planet's  crust,  it  is 
abortive  in  all  its  attempts  to  rend  the  globe,  and  reduce 
it  back  to  chaotic  conditions.  Gravitation,  the  con- 
structive, ruling,  and  conservatiye  agent,  counteracts  its 
destructive  tendency  by  neutralizing  its  power. 

Igneous  force  may,  indeed,  be  so  concentrated,  and 
yet  extensive  in  its  action,  as  to  impulsively  and  tran- 
siently uplift  a  line  of  coast  a  few  inches  or  a  few  feet 
above  its  normal  level.     Molten  matter,  in  circulating 


GEOLOGY   AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  57 

through  canals  or  caverns  within  the  crust  (the  exist- 
ence of  which  I  discovered  in  1856,  on  Hawaii,  and 
described  as  giving  origin  to  some  volcanoes  by  their 
upward  bursting  from  overstrained  tension),  may,  in 
consequence  of  its  connection  with  the  central  fires, 
slowly  or  suddenly  uplift  or  draw  down  limited  tracts 
of  surface.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  observations  made 
upon  oscillations  of  surface,  which  may  be  traceable  to 
dynamical  action  of  this  character.  But  for  igneous 
force  so  to  act  as  to  upheave  that  mountain-system  of 
North  and  South  America,  extending  from  the  Icy  Cape 
to  Cape  Horn,  is  a  fallacy  so  monstrous  and  palpable, 
that  a  mere  glance  at  our  physical  geography  should 
lead  us  to  detect  and  question  it.  When,  however,  this 
long  anticlinal,  often  indeed  extending  into  double  anti- 
clinals,  with  broad,  intervening  valleys  and  basins,  is 
examined  from  the  point  of  view  upon  which  this  dis- 
cussion will  place  the  candid  physicist,  he  will  discover 
it  to  result  from  a  falling-in  of  immense  lateral  exten- 
sions, by  which  the  globe  has  been  absolutely  reduced 
in  size.  A  personal  and  detailed  inspection  of  the 
physical  features  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and  of  the  An- 
des, will  finally  leave  no  doubt  in  his  mind  of  the 
correctness  of  this  conclusion. 

Further  than  this,  the  philosophical  geologist  will 
discover,  that  the  Andes  and  the  Sierra  Nevada  are  only 
disfigured  remains  of  vast  plateaus,  whose  present  alti- 
tudes were,  at  some  antediluvian  period,  populous  with 
warm-blooded  quadrupeds  now  extinct ;  and  that  all 
signs  within  the  range  of  observation  demonstrate  the 
same  physical  changes  to  have  transpired  there,  which 


58  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

are  apparent  in  lower  levels  of  the  globe.  There  is, 
therefore,  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  present 
highest  altitude  of  the  Andes  was,  at  one  time,  the 
general  or  lowest  level  of  the  surface  of  the  globe,  and 
that  the  bottom  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  soared  with  its 
lofty  ranges  of  mountains  far  above  them. 

If  so,  then  the  diameter  of  the  earth,  at  the  poles, 
must  have  been  very  much  greater  than  now,  at  some 
more  ancient  epoch.  It  must  have  been  more  than 
twenty-seven  miles  greater  to  permit  such  equatorial  or 
tropical  exposures  to  the  sun  as  we  know  to  be  neces- 
sary for  the  production  of  those  vegetable  forms  which 
abound  in  the  coal  measures  of  arctic  latitudes.  If  it 
was  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  greater  during  any  portion 
of  the  carboniferous  age,  it  might  have  been  two  hun- 
dred during  the  "  Taconic  "  period  of  the  late  sagacious 
and  lamented  Mr.  Emmons,  and  perhaps  three  hundred 
or  more,  when  the  life-force  began  to  fashion  its  pri- 
mordial and  rudimentary  organisms  upon  its  waiting 
surface. 

Did  the  necessities  of  this  discussion  demand  it,  I 
might  illustrate  more  at  length  the  operation  and  effects 
of  this  mechanism,  in  producing  the  multiform  aspects  of 
marsh  and  lowland,  plateau  and  mountain,  which  con- 
stitute our  present  physical  geography,  and  which  have 
been  riven  asunder  and  dislocated  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  incompatible  with  the  prevailing  philosophy.  I 
will  defer,  however,  elaborate  particulars  for  another 
occasion ;  meantime  assuming  the  temerity  to  predict 
that  hereafter^  when  this  branch  of  inquiry  shall  have 
been  studied  more  profoundly,  some  great  geologist  will 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  59 

arise,  gifted  also  with  the  power  of  numbers,  who 
will  measure  the  earth  with  rod  and  plummet,  reduce 
all  rocks  and  strata  to  their  natural  order,  and  recon- 
struct the  globe  in  all  the  details  of  its  ancient  forms 
and  ages,  with  their  legitimate  flora  and  fauna,  and 
who  will  bring  the  system  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
unfold  on  this  occasion,  into  perfect  harmony  with  all 
other  departments  of  natural  science. 

As  a  science,  this  branch  of  physics  is,  in  itself,  purely 
cosmographical,  connecting  geology  on  one  hand,  with 
astronomy  on  the  other ;  and,  in  its  developments,  will 
tend  to  point  out  errors,  and  direct  to  new  paths  of  dis- 
covery in  both.  It  conflicts  with  truth  nowhere.  It 
throws  light  on  problematical  questions  of  much  impor- 
tance. It  permits  a  rational  solution  of  the  theories  of 
some  illustrious  men,  which,  without  its  acceptance,  can 
never  be  harmonized  with  natural  law.  It  explains  the 
evidences  of  glacial  action  anywhere,  and  in  all  geologi- 
cal ages,  while  it  rids  the  theory,  as  now  advocated  by 
its  celebrated  author,  of  those  incumbrances  which  must 
for  ever  make  it  untenable.  It  dispels  the  darkness 
which  hangs  over  the  speculations  of  those  savans  who 
invest  the  earlier  ages  with  universal  and  perennial  heat, 
thereby  setting  at  nought  those  meteorological  conditions 
necessary  to  tropical  fertility.  It  explains  how  the  ante- 
diluvian pachyderms  have  been  violently  transported 
from  life  and  pasture  in  temperate  and  tropical  regions, 
to  sudden  death  and  immediate  congelation  by  polar 
cold.  It  answers  all  the  questions  proposed  in  this  thesis, 
and  a  thousand  more.  But,  above  all,  it  makes  the  ways 
of  God  upon  the  earth  more  clear  to  man.     The  veil 


60  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

that  covers  the  origin  and  diversity  of  species  is  with- 
drawn, and  the  path  pointed  out,  which  may  yet  lead  to 
the  discovery  of  the  transformation  of  physical  into  vital 
force.     Sudden  transpositions  of  matter  within  and  upon 
the   surface    of  the  globe  must  necessarily  disturb  its 
equilibrium.     The  consequent  movements  of  its  waters, 
and  changes  of  temperature,  must  equally  involve  the 
destruction  of  many  and  the  modification  of  all  remain- 
ing races.     The  plan  of  creation,  although  mysterious,  is, 
as  we  know  from  its  history,  progressive.     Life  is  onward 
and  upward  in  its  instincts  and  developments.     Once 
linked  to  matter,  it  becomes  as  unquenchable   as  the 
stars.     Every   successive    condensation,  and  change  of 
equipoise,  in  the  globe,  have  been  attended  with  such 
fresh  displays  of  morphological  force,  that  there  is  now 
scarcely  a  form  existing  that  was  originally  created  upon 
its  surface.     Increasing  condensation  implies  increasing 
repulsion.     Physical  aggregates  are  composed  of  molec- 
ulars.     From  the  alternate  and  unceasing  play  of  these 
fundamental  forces,  spring  those  secondary  powers  of 
magnetism,    heat,   light   and    electricity,   which    endow 
insensible   atoms   with    motion   and   sensibility.      Con- 
sciousness and  intelligence,  —  immortal  offshoots  of  the 
Godhead,  —  the  finite  within  the  infinite,  cannot  exist 
independent  of  these.     Thus  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
Eternal,  rising  from  matter  to  force,  from  force  to  motion, 
from  motion  to  life,  from  life  to  intelligence,  and  from 
intelligence  to  the  Creator  of  all. 

In  the  old  geological  theory  of  the  world,  the  zealous 
student  after  truth  and  progress  must  plod  for  ever  in  an 
endless  maze.     In  this  which  I  have  attempted  to  unfold, 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  61 

the  twilight  appears  to  me  to  be  dawning,  which  shall 
lead  future  generations  of  scholars  to  an  accurate  un- 
derstanding of  nature,  and  reduce  all  research  after  the 
origin  and  phenomena  of  matter,  force,  life,  and  intelli- 
gence, into  such  logical  channels,  that  human  reason  shall 
at  last  be  crowned  with  a  knowledge  of  the  secret  spring 
of  being. 

Thus  the  speculative  idea  of  Leibnitz,  announced  in 
1683,  lost  for  a  century,  revived  by  Deluc,  and  buried 
again  for  several  generations,  assumes,  under  our  dis- 
cussions, definite  scientific  life  and  force,  and  crystallizes 
around  it  the  accumulating  facts  and  developments  of  a 
new  philosophy.  Ignorant  of  the  extent  of  Leibnitz's 
conjectures  during  my  own  practical  explorations  toward 
the  same  point,  I  am  only  the  more  confirmed  in  the 
verity  and  stability  of  my  conclusions  as  operative  and 
positive  realities,  since  they  are  strengthened  by  the 
prophetic  inferences  of  that  wonderful  mind.  Were  he 
now  living,  illuminated  by  the  blazing  light  of  modern 
discovery,  no  geologist  would  be  able  to  resist  the 
potency  of  his  demonstrations  or  authority.  When  first 
advanced,  the  correctness  of  the  opinion  could  not  be 
proven  ;  for  geology  was  yet  unborn.  In  the  mean  time, 
human  thought  has  been  struggling  up  among  dogmas 
and  systems,  and  has  lost  its  way  amid  the  endless  con- 
fusion of  fact  and  fancy.  Even  in  these  ages  of  increas- 
ing light,  another  century  may  yet  elapse  before  science 
and  philosophy  will  accept,  in  its  fulness,  the  idea  of 
Leibnitz,  and  the  unfaltering  extension  of  it  presented 
in  this  imperfect  disquisition.  But,  however  slow  here- 
tofore the   progress   of   knowledge,  whatever   may  be 


62  RADIATION    AND    GRAVITATION    APPLIED    TO 

hereafter  the  decision  of  physicists  and  thinkers,  there 
is  one  formidable  class  of  public  teachers,  who,  for  ever 
jealous  of  free  thought  and  inquuy,  frowning  upon 
physical  discovery,  and  lagging  behind  society  in  all 
solid  acquirements,  will  not  venture  to  question  the 
possible  truth  involved  in  this  discussion  ;  for  it  an- 
nounces the  fulfilment  of  the  alarming  judgments  which 
they  preach.  And  well  may  they,  in  their  turn,  truly 
fear  and  tremble ;  for  it  proclaims,  with  an  eloquence 
as  prophetic  as  the  voice  of  Peter  or  Christ,  that  "  the 
day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night ;  in 
the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great 
noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  a  fervent  heat, 
and  the  earth,  and  the  works  that  are  therein,  shall  be 
swallowed  up."  —  "But  of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth 
no  man."  —  "  But  as  the  days  of  Noah  were,  so  shall  also 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be."  Nevertheless,  the 
mere  assent  of  these  opponents  of  intellectual  progress 
w411  not  prove  these  predictions  to  be  correct,  any  more 
than  their  tortures,  rebukes,  and  discouragements  have 
proved  the  discoveries  of  Galileo  or  Darwin  to  be 
wrong.  The  final  triumph  of  scientific  truth  will  only 
put  its  enemies  and  cavillers  to  the  deeper  shame. 

To  the  really  devout  student  of  Nature,  who  loves 
and  cultivates  science  because  it  leads  to  the  surest 
knowledge  of  that  Invisible  Being  whose  marvellous 
counsels  are  undivided,  it  will  be  pleasant  to  perceive 
that  a  remarkable  correspondence  exists  between  the 
physical  changes  herein  delineated  and  the  events  and 
mechanism  as  succinctly  described  in  the  sacred  cos- 
In  no  other  manner  could  those  events  as 


GEOLOGY    AND    PHYSICAL    GEOGRAPHY.  63 

there  recorded  be  fulfilled  :  "  Let  the  waters  under  the 
heaven  be  gathered  together  unto  one  place,  and  let 
the  dry  land  appear  ;  and  it  was  so."  How  could  it 
have  been  "  so,"  unless  the  arch  of  the  globe  collapsed, 
making  a  great  continuous  basin,  wherein  the  waters 
were  gathered  together,  thus  causing  continents  to  ap- 
pear? The  idea  of  Moses  is  precise,  and  it  has  no 
relation  nor  pointing  to  theories  of  upheaval.  It  does 
not  mean,  Let  the  dry  land  be  upheaved,  and  all  the 
waters  under  the  heavens  be  displaced,  and  old  lands  be 
overwhelmed;  but "  Let  the  waters  be  gathered  together" 
into  a  deep  place,  so  that  new  lands  may  appear  above 
them.  Nothing  expressed  in  language  can  be  more 
definite. 

Thus  we  see,  that  by  a  fearless  pursuit  of  natural 
truth,  discarding  all  reverence  for  the  worthless  systems 
of  sophists,  ecclesiastics,  and  theorists,  we  shall  meet 
with  the  greater  satisfaction  in  the  end.  The  end,  in- 
deed, we  may  be  slow  to  reach  ;  but  patient  labor, 
self-sacrificing  travel,  extensive  observation  illuminated 
by  the  largest  culture,  candid  comparisons  of  facts  from 
every  theoretical  point  of  view,  broad  generalizations 
based  upon  rationalism  rather  than  upon  mathematics, 
—  in  a  word,  fearless,  able,  and  honest  inquiry,  follow- 
ing the  lead  of  Nature  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child  in 
the  hand  of  his  father,  will,  at  last,  raise  Geology  to  the 
high  rank  it  ought  to  occupy,  and  establish  it  upon  solid 
foundations  as  an  exact  science. 


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